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Hizbullah distributes Leaflets claiming victory
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
21:28 3 00:00 Mushie [17]
18:35 12 00:00 Hupith Elmeth2832 [17]
16:53 5 00:00 BrerRabbit [8]
16:48 10 00:00 DMFD [22]
16:47 85 00:00 trailing wife [19]
16:36 0 [9]
16:24 6 00:00 Zenster [16] 
16:08 7 00:00 ed [16] 
15:26 13 00:00 Jules in the Hinterlands [15] 
14:58 0 [16]
14:03 15 00:00 Zenster [10]
13:59 1 00:00 Barbara Skolaut [14]
13:42 9 00:00 Alaska Paul [13]
13:39 2 00:00 6 [13]
13:30 3 00:00 no mo uro [13]
13:07 6 00:00 ed [12] 
13:02 3 00:00 Jackal [13]
13:02 7 00:00 Zenster [9]
13:00 3 00:00 6 [9]
12:56 5 00:00 Zenster [11]
12:53 4 00:00 Iblis [11]
12:50 3 00:00 6 [8] 
12:28 6 00:00 Clerert Uneamp2772 [8]
12:26 3 00:00 Zenster [10]
12:17 1 00:00 Hupasing Crath3963 [12]
12:12 14 00:00 DMFD [18]
12:04 3 00:00 anonymous5089 [9]
11:40 4 00:00 Iblis [14]
11:30 0 [12]
11:30 2 00:00 gorb [17]
11:28 0 [7]
11:25 4 00:00 3dc [9]
11:21 4 00:00 Jackal [18]
11:14 0 [7]
11:01 9 00:00 Fred G [12]
10:15 6 00:00 DMFD [7]
10:08 11 00:00 mojo [8]
10:03 4 00:00 Captain America [7]
10:01 15 00:00 6 [7] 
10:00 8 00:00 leroidavid [8]
09:43 19 00:00 FUCK YOU CALI [10]
09:24 2 00:00 trailing wife [11] 
08:17 13 00:00 Zenster [14] 
08:10 1 00:00 trailing wife [14] 
07:59 3 00:00 trailing wife [7]
07:51 4 00:00 newc [7]
07:49 25 00:00 Deacon Blues [11] 
07:31 24 00:00 eLarson [14]
07:25 3 00:00 DMFD [13]
06:05 4 00:00 kelly [12] 
04:17 9 00:00 Sock Puppet of Doom [25]
03:57 8 00:00 BA [7]
03:01 2 00:00 Captain America [13]
02:24 4 00:00 Besoeker [12] 
02:06 15 00:00 Deacon Blues [11] 
01:14 4 00:00 Captain America [8]
01:05 15 00:00 Zenster [11] 
00:00 4 00:00 Zenster [12] 
00:00 14 00:00 Fred G [10]
00:00 1 00:00 Pappy [11]
00:00 0 [13] 
00:00 11 00:00 Jules in the Hinterlands [8]
00:00 0 [12] 
00:00 38 00:00 Bangkok Billy [17] 
00:00 0 [11]
00:00 3 00:00 Glenmore [15] 
00:00 4 00:00 Duh! [22]
00:00 7 00:00 JohnQC [16]
00:00 11 00:00 gorb [24] 
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00:00 6 00:00 Flaigum Whelet4630 [6]
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00:00 55 00:00 lotp [16]
India-Pakistan
Musharraf Confers Hilal-e-Pakistan on Prince Sultan
ISLAMABAD, 15 August 2006 — President Gen. Pervez Musharraf conferred the Hilal-e-Pakistan upon Crown Prince Sultan on Pakistan’s 60th Independence Day.

According to a press release, President Musharraf also conferred the Hilal-e-Pakistan upon the Kingdom’s ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Awad Al-Aseeri. The Saudi ambassador was recognized for his outstanding services to the people and government of Pakistan during last October’s earthquake.

Others awarded the Hilal-e-Pakistan by Musharraf included ambassadors from the US, Turkey, Cuba and Bosnia. In addition, he presented a number of awards, both civilian and military, to people who provided earthquake relief and rehabilitation services and to military personnel who served in Waziristan and Dera Bugti.

The District Coordination Officer of Dera Bugti, Abdul Samad Lasi, also received an award.

Last night in an address at the Presidential Palace, President Musharraf said that Pakistan was a nuclear power which would never be the victim of aggression. He also listed accomplishments made during his time as the country’s leader.
Posted by: john || 08/14/2006 21:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does it come with the beauty queen sash that Perv wears?
Posted by: john || 08/14/2006 21:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Halal? Is he edible now?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 21:46 Comments || Top||

#3  You sure got a purty mouth, princie.
Posted by: Mushie || 08/14/2006 22:44 Comments || Top||


Britain
Now Scotland To Have Knife-Control
A crackdown on the sale of swords has been launched as part of a campaign to tackle knife crime and violence.

Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson announced laws to ban swords unless sold for legitimate reasons.

Shops selling swords will need a licence, as will businesses dealing with non-domestic knives and other bladed weapons such as machetes.

The measures are the latest steps from the Scottish Executive to curb the problem of knife crime.

They come weeks after a nationwide knife amnesty.

A total of 12,645 blades - including lock knives, machetes, swords, meat cleavers, bayonets and axes - were handed in during the five-week amnesty...
It's those darn immortals at it again.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 18:35 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I suggest a toothbrush-control.

You have no idea the harm that can be done by throwing a toothbrush into one's eye.
Posted by: leroidavid || 08/14/2006 19:12 Comments || Top||

#2  How about scissors? Or ball? "Mom always says, don't play ball in the house".
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 19:15 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll surrender my dirk when the pry if from my blood soaked hose.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 19:17 Comments || Top||

#4  Claw end of a framing hammer will do just fine. Go ahead, ban framing hammers!
Posted by: Iblis || 08/14/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#5  I guess Duncan Macleod will have to use a butter knife from now on?
Posted by: john || 08/14/2006 19:41 Comments || Top||

#6  A shovel takes an edge rather well....
Posted by: Mark E. || 08/14/2006 21:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Pathetic. As if this will do the least bit to deter Islamic beheadings. The world would be better served (so to speak), if they outlawed haggis.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:34 Comments || Top||

#8  I suppose next their be banning teacups....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 21:51 Comments || Top||

#9  The stupid Socialists. I really think killing every last one of them is the only recourse to their control freakery. Yea they can have my sword all 2 and a half feet of it sharp end first.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2006 22:24 Comments || Top||

#10  I'd rather they concentrated on crime control, but that's just me....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 22:40 Comments || Top||

#11  What about pointy sticks?
Posted by: DMFD || 08/14/2006 22:50 Comments || Top||

#12  Shillelaghs, anyone?
Posted by: Hupith Elmeth2832 || 08/14/2006 23:40 Comments || Top||


Little British Girl's Passport Photo Rejected, Bare Shoulders Might "Offend"
From the Rantburg YJCMTSU Department, London Bureau....Click on the link to see the "offending" pic for yourself.
A five-year-old girl's passport application was rejected because her photograph showed her bare shoulders.
But a burqa would have been just fine...
Hannah Edwards's mother, Jane, was told that the exposed skin might be considered offensive in a Muslim country. The photograph was taken at a photo-booth at a local post office for a family trip to the south of France.
Well, it is getting more Muslim by the day there....
The family had it signed and presented it at a post office with the completed form but were told that it would not be accepted by the Passport Office. A woman behind the counter informed them that she was aware of at least two other cases where applications had been rejected because a person's shoulders were not covered.
Next time, submit the form to the clerk *not* wearing hijab...
Mrs Edwards, a Sheffield GP, said: "I was incensed. I went back home and checked the form. Nowhere did it say anything about covering up shoulders....It is just officialdom pandering to political correctness. It is a total over-reaction. How can the shoulders of a five-year-old girl offend anyone?"
I don't know if ol' Mo would have been offended. Turned on, probably.
After the rejection at the post office, Mrs Edwards spent two hours taking Hannah for new pictures, filling in a new form and finding the necessary "responsible citizens" to endorse the photos.

A spokesman for the Identity and Passport Service said it was not its policy to reject applications with bare shoulders. A Post Office spokesman said: "Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn't be. Bare shoulders don't come into that at all. We can't see any instruction to that effect so all we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk at the post office. It is the first time we have heard of such a rejection and we will take it up with that particular office."
I think my next passport picture will show me in a bikini top....just because....
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 16:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Next time, submit the form to the clerk *not* wearing hijab" and used to work in the Saudi Pasport office. I would add.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/14/2006 18:12 Comments || Top||

#2  fire the PC bitch
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 18:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Second.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||

#4  So, the PO thinks frogistan is muslim, eh?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 08/14/2006 20:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Shoulda had the butt end of a goat in the background that way the Muzzies wouldn't even notice the shoulders.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/14/2006 20:15 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Why the Terror Plots Are False
by Abid Ullah Jan

"The true precursors of radicalism can be found in the earliest European movements to colonize the world. The same approach resulted in the establishment of the modern systems of political and economic oppression. Any movement that resists this imperial order is crushed with military force, and terrorism is used to keep people, particularly Muslims, from challenging the status quo."

There are strong reasons to believe that Muslims are not responsible for the recently unveiled terror plots both in Toronto and London. To understand the reasons why these plots are false, one has to begin with himself and think from inside out. I would begin with myself as a Muslim, who shares the beliefs that are attributed to the alleged terrorists, but does not feel compelled to even think about murdering innocent civilians. Terrorists supposedly believe that:

a). The present world order is unjust. It is a continuation of 700-year old colonial fascism.
b). The former colonialism has combined with new systems for exploiting the natural resources of the weak and maintaining full control of their political systems through puppets.
c). The wars on Afghanistan and Iraq are illegitimate and illegal.
d). 9/11 was an inside job[1] unless we see evidence to the contrary or find answers to the long lists of unanswered questions. [2]
e). Bush and Blair are neck deep in the blood of innocent Muslims and non-Muslims.
f). Aggression and oppression should be resisted.
g). Muslims deserve the right to self-determination and self-rule and should struggle to live by Islam, free from colonial interference.
h). The dying British Empire illegally imposed Israel on the local Arab population and took its land. Regardless of any solution to the Muslim-Israel problem, it is an illegitimate, racist state created and sustained with the help of terrorism and racism.


Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john || 08/14/2006 16:48 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A shrink would have an absolute field-day with this guy.

I'm not sure I could even find a single sequitor in this guy's "logic." Reminds me of some of LaRouche's work.
Posted by: Xbalanke || 08/14/2006 17:49 Comments || Top||

#2  . This idea of inflicting mass civilian casualties has more in common with modem European revolutionaries than it does with anything in medieval times or in Islam.

Let's start here.
Posted by: twobyfour || 08/14/2006 17:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn, and I thought it was all Bush's fault.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 18:34 Comments || Top||

#4  Just return all the Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, etc lands and all will be forgiven Abid.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#5  #1 Their shrinks need shrinks.

This is information war.
Mirroring the bombs and bullets campaign.
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 18:40 Comments || Top||

#6  Islam delenda est. They're incapable of reforming themselves.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/14/2006 19:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Ripley's analysis sinks in.
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 20:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Has a whinier bunch of retarded bitches ever walked the earth?
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 20:59 Comments || Top||

#9  This is the Scheherezade logic offensive guaranteed to blow your mind.
1001 passive/aggressive excuses.
Posted by: J. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||

#10  Ripley's analysis sinks in

Ellen Ripley?
Posted by: DMFD || 08/14/2006 22:55 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
You're invited to a tea party
In respect to Yosemite Sam's cri de cour (I think that's how the French is spelt) for the good old days here at Rantburg, and in gratitude to Mike's charming film potrayal of me eating cake, all of the good hearted Rantburgers - old hands, regulars, irregulars and lurkers - are herewith invited to join me here for tea.

Here at the tea table we have tea and coffee, with milk, sugar, sweetener and lemon for those who want them. Autobartender was kind enough to set up the hard stuff over there on the sideboard for those who prefer it -- so you know he picked the nicest bottles from behind the O Club bar. And of course some baked things, without which a tea party is incomplete: milk tarts for Besoeker, who got a bit pummeled today, lemon poundcake garnished with lemon geranium leaves and day lilies for those who know how to appreciate such things, and a variety of cookies baked by the trailing daughters who are thrilled to have a famous mother.

For those of you with muddy feet, the shoe brush is by the door; dirty hands can wash in the sink across the hall before coming in. No one need hold back because he'd been engaged in honest labour before joining us.

What can I offer you? :-D
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 16:47 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [19 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Looks a bit formal
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||

#2  This type of rich tea party in the music vid?

hee hee
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 17:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Thank you ever so much for the gracious invitation. May I wear my hat?
Posted by: Xbalanke || 08/14/2006 17:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Only lady guests and cowboys wear hats indoors, Xbalanke. Next time I'll ask Fred if we can do this out on the veranda. (Rantburg does have a veranda, doesn't it?). A pity, as it is a charming hat, but let's you and I be bareheaded together, shall we? Love the videos, 3dc!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 17:48 Comments || Top||

#5  so you know he picked the nicest bottles from behind the O Club bar

Mostly, anyway. ;-)

A cup of Darjeeling would go well about now, if you would, and a slice of the lemon poundcake.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 17:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Am I late? I had to go fetch my gloves...
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/14/2006 17:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Here you are, lotp. Sit down and feel appreciated. Cream or sugar?

Seafarious, we would have waited for you as long as necessary. You look divine! Just like in Mike's movie. Anyway the nice thing about tea parties (mine, anyway) is that people wander in, have a cup and a bit of a chat, and then wander out again. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:00 Comments || Top||

#8  are hawaiian shirts allowed?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 18:00 Comments || Top||

#9  Of course, Frank G. -- no unnecessary formality at Rantburg. And that is a particularly colourful one, are you wearing it specially for us?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:10 Comments || Top||

#10  it's my Monday work shirt. Makes Shipman jealous
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 18:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Thank you, TW. Next time perhaps I will be able to change into a suitable dress with hat and gloves. But I do appreciate the informality of coming directly from work activities.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:12 Comments || Top||

#12  I've not met an unsuitable Rantburger yet, lotp. Although there have been some short-timers... but I s'pose they count as suitable chew toys. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Doncha all look nice then ?
Make mine light and sweet.
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 18:17 Comments || Top||

#14  My pleasure, J.D.Lux. Welcome!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:24 Comments || Top||

#15  Oh, thank goodness! For a moment there I found myself in Roadside America!!!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:25 Comments || Top||

#16  Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
Posted by: Xbalanke || 08/14/2006 18:28 Comments || Top||

#17 


As this is a sivilized garden party, I thought I'd share my stitchery with the ladies and whichever of the gents who chooses to join us. I've been working on this Calla Lily counted cross-stitch pattern all summer. This pic is from about halfway through the project, they are done now and in a beautiful black frame, waiting for judging at my local County Fair. I'll know how they did tomorrow. (and thanks Fred for the bandwidth loan!)
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/14/2006 18:32 Comments || Top||

#18  Nice work, Sea!

And if the boys can post porn ummm ... pictures that appeal to them then a modest example of needlecraft should be unobjectionable.

;-)
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:35 Comments || Top||

#19  Not very modest, no. I'm actually rather proud of this one. It turned out well, I think. And I believe I'll need a wee dram of bourbon in that ever-so-delicate demitasse!
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/14/2006 18:40 Comments || Top||

#20  Ah, pardon Seafarious. By "modest" I meant the use of Fred's bandwidth, not your needlwork!
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:41 Comments || Top||

#21  Here, Xbalanke. If you are as desperate as you sound, I stand ready to pour another cup as soon as that one's empty.

And a dollop of bourbon for Seafarious in 18th cent. style demitasse cup I picked up in Germany, the one with the lady and gentleman all in pink and gold. Well done on the cross stitchery! None of the things I do to while away time on the airplanes (or that I used to do, before all the recent excitements deprived me of my needle) can compare. Do let us know what the judges decide, O holder of yet another hidden Rantburg talent!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 18:50 Comments || Top||

#22  It's funny, these lillies have pwned me the past weeks...gotta get done in time for the fair! Fair! Fair! Fair! No time for RB, gotta stitch!Last Monday at last they were done, Tuesday they were in their frame, Wednesday I have this huge void...OMG what will I *do* with myself? So now my house is a whole lot cleaner. LOL.
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/14/2006 18:57 Comments || Top||

#23  Ah! A nice tall glass of iced tea, with a sprig of mint, of course.

Followed, if you please, by a tall cold beer (or barring the beer, another glass of mint tea with a shot of something just a wee bit stronger).

TW, you are a gracious lady , and your significant other is a lucky man.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 19:17 Comments || Top||

#24  Drat! Misformatted the "noble bow"...

My pardon, lady.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 19:19 Comments || Top||

#25  Golly, FOTSGreg, you do know how to flatter a girl! I haven't seen such a lovely bow since Friday night, watching Shakespeare in the park. They did Twelfth Night. Here's your mint iced tea, good sir; you'll need to check the sideboard to see if Autobartender put out any beer along with the liquor. (I'll be sure to remind Mr. Wife how lucky he is, later. It doesn't do to desert one's own party for such private moments.)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 19:31 Comments || Top||

#26  Do I have to drink Tea, TW? Had Johnnie Walker Blue/Rocks in mind.....

I promise, no more than two. After all this is a very highbrow affair.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 19:31 Comments || Top||

#27  On the sideboard over there, mcsegeek1 dear. I know there are those that prefer something stronger, so Autobartender set it up for me. But I thought Johnnie Walker only came in red and black?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 19:37 Comments || Top||

#28  Why thank you, TW. So nice of you to put this soiree together. Make mine a Long Island please -it's been hot here of late.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 08/14/2006 19:41 Comments || Top||

#29  Nice flowers, Emily. Are they your own design? I like to cross-stitch, too, but I have so many other things going on I haven't been able to keep it up. I did this one. Cheetahs are hard. That's a kit, of course.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 08/14/2006 19:42 Comments || Top||

#30  Can anyone mix a long island iced tea for Rex Mundi? I'm afraid I'm still trying to figure out Scotch & soda, y'see. All I know is that when it's done it really does taste like simple iced tea. Why don't you wander over to the sideboard over there, Rex Mundi dear, no doubt one of the guys can fix you up.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 19:49 Comments || Top||

#31  My lady, the Bard would be exquisitely pleased with your knowledge and recognition of one of his most inadequate works of comedic entertainment (as compared to this glorious event that you have, yourself, put on).

The tea is quite delicious (especially with a dollop of peppermint schnaps), the company even more so. I do believe I see Seafarious, Mcsegeek1, and, is that Dr. Steve over yonder? Perhaps I shall have a bit of a chat with him for awhile if you will excuse me for the non...?
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 20:00 Comments || Top||

#32  Please enjoy all the company here this evening, FOTSGreg. The best parties result from the company, not the hostess, as well you know. Go do your bit to make it even better.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 20:04 Comments || Top||

#33  I'll have a quart of iced tea and a bag of ginger snaps, ifn you got.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:09 Comments || Top||

#34  Shipman, of course. Did you want a glass or will you drink straight from the pitcher?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 20:12 Comments || Top||

#35  ima got me chie. yallz knoes itn shipmans unbirthday?
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:13 Comments || Top||

#36  Did you say lurkers are invited as well. I'd like a cup of tea with one lump of sugar if I may. I am usually only served a cup of "shut the F@#k up" from my liberal "aquaintances". So nice to be invited in from the cold (attitudes that is). Rantburg, what a lovely gathering place of like minded people (well, most of the time anyways). I keep saying that I will participate in your intelligent conversations, but wonder sometimes if I can add to the conversation without maiking a fool of my self. Thank you for the tea, TW, I must go back to my dark corner now.
Kw-kid
Posted by: kilowattkid || 08/14/2006 20:14 Comments || Top||

#37  Hi, muck4doo! What's a chie?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 20:14 Comments || Top||

#38  Unbirthday? I thought that was in.... ummmm.... 10/15
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:15 Comments || Top||

#39  I'd like a glass, can I test it for tontisity?
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:16 Comments || Top||

#40  chai?
Posted by: 11A5S || 08/14/2006 20:19 Comments || Top||

#41  Mucky! Well met, old friend, and welcome back (even though we may not know one another that well).

You have been missed by this old reprobate, at the very least.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 20:19 Comments || Top||

#42  All the right people are here TW, well done. I expect Deacon in regalia any moment.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:23 Comments || Top||

#43  goodn see yallz 2.

chie
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:23 Comments || Top||

#44  Hiya Killowatt Kid!
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 20:24 Comments || Top||

#45  Welcome, kilowattkid! Go ahead and join in -- it's the best way to learn, and I've no doubt in time your area of expertise or experience will come to the fore. I mean, I'm just a little civilian housewife with an Mrs. whose husband travels a bit, and it turns out that some of his stories are useful to the discussion. Ok, I did work in a jewelry store for a while, and I was a bookkeeper for a clothing manufacturer, and I used to be the trailing daughters' soccer teams' conditioning coach, oh, and I ran a little outdoor learning lab for their elementary school PTA, but none of that has turned out to be helpful in the WoT yet, and people still are ever so nice when I post. With a nic (or is it nym?) like that, I'm sure you bring more to the table.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 20:24 Comments || Top||

#46  Ah chie, sez I knowlingly. AKA the good stuff
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:26 Comments || Top||

#47  grayte nic. :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:27 Comments || Top||

#48  Anyone see my lost Chie?
Posted by: HalfEmpty || 08/14/2006 20:28 Comments || Top||

#49  theenkn frank passst owt with it on em pateeo half. :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#50  I don't read that alphabet, mucky -- is it Korean?

Lots of people haven't popped in yet, Shipman, but I live in hope. I think Besoeker might be afraid he'll be rejected today, f'r instance. But I'm flattered at all who came for this bit of silliness in the midst of madness and mayhem. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 20:31 Comments || Top||

#51  Not to worry TW, is that Frank in the shirt by Omar the tent maker? Kinda hard to jump over.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:34 Comments || Top||

#52  Why, thank you TW. I may sit for another. My only request is please don't spike my drink. I may start ranting like Joseph M (for Prez '08) or begin spelling like mucky :) To lurk is to learn here, and you fine folks have taught me many things (espcially my deficencies of history, which I am working on changing). Please carry on as I enjoy these cookies that the offspring have prepared.
Posted by: kilowattkid || 08/14/2006 20:35 Comments || Top||

#53  Frank's passed out on the patio.
Has anyone seen Pinback or my jumpsuit ?

I'm just a little civilian housewife with an Mrs. whose husband travels a bit,

TW for ( insert title of head of state of choice here).

"PinbacK ! " "Get over here"
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 20:36 Comments || Top||

#54  Let us know when you begin to understand Joe, KilowattKid. Then it will be the long walk on the rice paper and the tatto for you.
Posted by: Shipman || 08/14/2006 20:37 Comments || Top||

#55  sum tee for half an mee
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:41 Comments || Top||

#56  FRANK! FRANK!
Waker Up!

They's a fly ash problem Frank. Wake up!
It's real!
Posted by: HalfEmpty || 08/14/2006 20:41 Comments || Top||

#57  :>
If only Jimmy was here.
Posted by: HalfEmpty || 08/14/2006 20:42 Comments || Top||

#58  TW: "I've not met an unsuitable Rantburger yet, lotp."

You've never met me.

Heh, heh...
Posted by: Dave D. || 08/14/2006 20:49 Comments || Top||

#59  :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 20:52 Comments || Top||

#60  Good niters folks. Sleep tight. I recommend it.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 20:56 Comments || Top||

#61  G'nite
Posted by: Jimmy || 08/14/2006 20:58 Comments || Top||

#62  Well .... I did go on rather a series of rants today. Sorry 'bout that, all. Too few tea breaks lately, I suspect.

PS: for newcomers, Dave is a dear although he would rather you not know that. So don't tell him I said it, it will cause him to act out.

Or something. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 20:58 Comments || Top||

#63  Nite.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 20:59 Comments || Top||

#64  ima heer me sofa an teeeveee kallin. ben fun. kep kava legal!
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 21:00 Comments || Top||

#65  Evening, All, sorry I'm late. I did need to wash up after all the chores. I also couldn't find my beanie with the propellor.
beanie
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/14/2006 21:01 Comments || Top||

#66  luv it db! :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 08/14/2006 21:02 Comments || Top||

#67  Cuh...:LASSIC !
Deacon wins the door prize !
Posted by: Jimmy || 08/14/2006 21:04 Comments || Top||

#68  I must retire as well. The voltage queen has summoned me to tuck in the little ampere. Thanks for the hospitality all.
Posted by: kilowattkid || 08/14/2006 21:06 Comments || Top||

#69  Greetings all! This is lovely, tw: Fred goes on vacation and half the population of Rantburg drops in for your tea party. He'll never believe it. Earl Grey, please.
Posted by: Darrell || 08/14/2006 21:12 Comments || Top||

#70  My lady, wonderful party, but I fear I must bid you and all the others a good night.

I'll see ya'll tomorrow, I'm sure (bows again courteousely though with slight slur)...
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 21:13 Comments || Top||

#71  Too cute for words, Deacon Blues. Does it count as a hat to be taken off indoors, or as a religious headcovering like a yarmulke?

What lotp said about Dave D. -- at least so long as Autobartender keeps him on a tight leash.

J.D. Lux, 'twould be a terrible idea for me to try to actually run things -- that requires an ability to understand mean people which is simply beyond me. I've lived a very sheltered life, I'm afraid, between my Ivory Tower childhood, living as a corporate expat in Europe, and now the outer suburbs of Cincinnati. Reality doesn't intrude often enough for me to truly understand it.

And greetings to all of you who popped in while I wasn't looking -- I know you helped yourself. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 21:14 Comments || Top||

#72  Here you are, Darrell. G'night FOTSGreg and all. Sleep well!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 21:16 Comments || Top||

#73  I'm awake :-) watching the NFL
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 21:19 Comments || Top||

#74  tw, I will doff my Beanie for your Tea Party. No Relgious significanc. I always wanted one as a kid. Absolutely Lovely Tea Party, too. Thank you ever so much for the Invitation.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/14/2006 21:19 Comments || Top||

#75  Raiders/ Vikings? bee watching it off and on. and the Braves.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/14/2006 21:21 Comments || Top||

#76  I've actually got to leave, too. Frank, you're my official substitute host, because I know I can trust you to handle all with grace and aplomb. After all, you carry off that Hawaiian shirt so beautifully. ;-)

Ladies and gentlemen, please continue to enjoy yourselves... until the clock strikes twelve and you all turn into pumpkins, anyway. If you enjoy yourselves half as much as I have, this little shindig counts as a roaring success. G'night!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 21:23 Comments || Top||

#77  OK - grab the beernuts, teh peanuts, and pickled eggs and move into the O-Club. The MNF game's on Fred's big screen
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 21:28 Comments || Top||

#78  we just got in from the beach and lookie here.. almost missed a wonderful tea party.

Thank you TW, very sweet of you and look at all the guests. Deacon Blues you look just like I immagined, very kool Bennie! LOL.

btw TW I have the Mucky decoder computer around here somwhere, I'll try and find it for you...I think Mucky keeps a decoder copy too for the uninitiated.



Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 21:35 Comments || Top||

#79  Wonderful tea party TW! Thank you very much!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 22:03 Comments || Top||

#80  Pour me a double cognac straight with a tea back, wouldja? What a crowd, tw! Pretty impressive. I didn't get dolled up in my usual gear-still sporting tennis wear, but I have on shoes and a shirt, so you'll let me in, right? :)
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 22:18 Comments || Top||

#81  Oh no, missed the party it seems! Stupid chores called me away for longer than I hoped.

Anyway, looks like a good time was had by all. Not surprising at all that trailing wife is a fabulous hostess!

Goodnight, Rantburg.....to regulars and lurkers both!
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 22:35 Comments || Top||

#82  SB: Good to see ya here. And, again, congrats on the future RB boy. Again, Auburn's looking for some good talent, lol.

Back in line w/ the tea party, I hate to see everyone leaving. Missing Frank passed out on the pateeeo in his hawaiian shirt bums me out. But, oh well, thanks TW for throwing this lil' escape from jihadi reality. Maybe Fred should go on vacation more often (did I say that out loud?). Signing off and see you all tomorrow, it's been real!
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||

#83  Who the heck would leave an engineer in charge of a tea party? Oh, it was you, tw. Sorry. Frank, your attention is directed to ASTM T633-98TP, "Standard Practice for the Conduct of Tea Parties."
Posted by: Matt || 08/14/2006 23:05 Comments || Top||

#84  Sorry I am late did I miss anything.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 23:07 Comments || Top||

#85  Just looking in to see about cleaning up.... Hmmm... Hey, look at that -- leave an engineer in charge and all the empty bottles are sorted by size and colour. ... and the left behind jackets, too. I'll leave them in the O-club, I guess. Lovely to see all those who came to the party. :-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 23:36 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Colby Cosh: paen to Castro is a "puerile, hallucinatory romance"
Communism is dead, possibly even deader than its sneering twin fascism. But the puerile, hallucinatory romance of the Dear Leader lives on--not just in the fungus-gnawed pages of forgotten propaganda manuals, but in an exclusive to your Sunday Toronto Star.

It has been a while since Western intellectuals made a habit of masturbating in public to comic-book fantasies of physically indomitable, universally erudite Communist revolutionaries. But then, an intellectual is someone who makes at least a modest effort to keep pace with the emergence of the historical record. . . .

Go read it all. The invective, and the fisking, are first-rate.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 16:36 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hezbo Soldiers Were Crying for Help
During the battles over the weekend, Hizbullah men who were in genuine distress were crying out for help," the officer said, referring to battles in the western sector. The IDF official added that throughout the fighting it was easy to spot Iranian assistance to Hizbullah.

"It was an Iranian front," the officer told Ynet.

Meanwhile, most forces who entered southern Lebanon over the weekend are still there, with the exception of members of the Herev regiment, who operated in the western sector for 30 straight days. The troops returned to Israel for a break but may still be called upon to return to Lebanon. "They said their beards are longer than Nasrallah's," a senior officer said.
Probably rodent free also
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 16:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, what exactly is the point of being in S. Lebanon if the IDF is not even rounding up weapons and rockets?
Posted by: Iblis || 08/14/2006 16:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Iblis, they are there because it may come to that. At the moment, I suspect IDF is going through recon/inventory phase. Chances are (better than 50%) that Hezbully will not uphold ceasefire.
Posted by: twobyfour || 08/14/2006 17:06 Comments || Top||

#3  DEBKAfile: Hizballah is filtering reinforcements into South Lebanon among returning refugees. They are taking up positions in the still undamaged bunkers and fortified civilian dwellings

August 15, 2006, 12:01 AM (GMT+02:00)

Therefore, although the rockets and guns were silent up to Monday night and thousands of displaced people in Israel and Lebanon headed for their ravaged homes, DEBKAfile’s military sources report trepidation about the durability of the ceasefire. The tense calm was marred only by three incidents in which Israeli troops shot Hizballah fighters making threatening approaches after Israel ordered its ground, air, artillery and naval forces to hold their fire at 0800 Monday Aug. 14 – unless threatened.

Northern Israelis came out of their bomb shelters after 33 days, South Lebanese cars clogged roads heading south from Beirut Monday morning. Both met scenes of destruction. After night fell, Hizballah staged victory celebrations in Beirut, while its leader, Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed a “historic and strategic victory” over Israel.

The IDF’s northern command watching the thousands of displaced Lebanese flocking to their homes feared they would be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire for reinforcing its depleted South Lebanese forces.

By afternoon, their fears were realized: cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment were clearly visible heading south. Israeli troops were not authorized to stop them. DEBKAfile quotes a senior military source as saying that Hizballah is making a mockery of the ceasefire which Israel honored. “The situation is dangerous,” he said, Most of Hizballah’s fortifications, including its bunker network in the south, were not destroyed as reported. Fresh Hizballah strength is now heading back to man those war stations anew.

Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berrir asked for 48 hours to persuade Hassan Nasrallah to accept a new proposal for Hizballah forces to remain in the south with their arms as an auxiliary force attached to the Lebanese army units to be deployed south of the Litani River.

Israeli troops inside Lebanon will hold their positions until a strengthened international force and the Lebanese army are able to take over.
Posted by: Legolas || 08/14/2006 17:14 Comments || Top||

#4  It's not surprising that Hezboschmucks are filtering reinforcements into South Lebanon; what is crazy, though, is that the Israeli troops are not authorized to stop the cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment.

Who gave that stupid order ?
Why are the Israeli leaders behaving in a so masochistic way ?
Posted by: leroidavid || 08/14/2006 18:18 Comments || Top||

#5  The Tranzi leaders of Israel?
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 18:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Perfect graphic. Bravo. To hell with crying, wait until the bubbles stop coming up.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:19 Comments || Top||


Israeli Soldiers Still 'Ready to Rumble' Till Kidnapped Returned
Reserve soldiers called up by the army to join the fighting in Lebanon began Monday to circulate a petition where they protest the fact abducted IDF soldiers in Lebanon have not yet been released.

The troops, who are just outside Lebanon at this time, already managed to get hundreds of signatures on the petition.

Yisrael Kasirar, one of the soldiers who initiated the petition, told Ynet:: "Reserve soldiers feel solidarity with the substance of the petition and it's circulating among many of them who are willing to sign it. The signing is taking place despite the current conditions, where reserve soldiers are spread across various areas in the north of the country."

The petition reads: "We, reserve soldiers who were called up for emergency duty, view with severity the acceptance of the ceasefire agreement in its current format, as a result of the abandonment of the abducted soldiers. We regret the fact that the fog of battle blurred the original war objectives we were enlisted for and the IDF values we were educated on. We're determined to complete the mission until the return of the abducted soldiers."

Kasirar says his comrades and him are willing to continue with reserve duty for many days and not come home until the mission is completed.

"We were in Lebanon, we fought in the Marjayoun region, our friends were killed and wounded, and we feel that the war objective was not achieved," he said, and added that initiators of the petition intend to forward it to as many reserve troops, including those currently in Lebanon.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 16:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  True men and brothers. I salute them for their courage and solidarity. Onward Hebrew warriors!
Posted by: Elmolutch Ebbeatle6080 || 08/14/2006 16:56 Comments || Top||

#2  I would be a lot more willing to believe all the analysts who are saying that the ceasefire is a victory for Israel if Israel had actually gotten her guys back. Isn't that what they went to war for? Until they are home, Israel has not succeeded, in my opinion.
Posted by: WhitecollarRedneck || 08/14/2006 17:09 Comments || Top||

#3  DEBKAfile: Hizballah is filtering reinforcements into South Lebanon among returning refugees. They are taking up positions in the still undamaged bunkers and fortified civilian dwellings

August 15, 2006, 12:01 AM (GMT+02:00)

Therefore, although the rockets and guns were silent up to Monday night and thousands of displaced people in Israel and Lebanon headed for their ravaged homes, DEBKAfile’s military sources report trepidation about the durability of the ceasefire. The tense calm was marred only by three incidents in which Israeli troops shot Hizballah fighters making threatening approaches after Israel ordered its ground, air, artillery and naval forces to hold their fire at 0800 Monday Aug. 14 – unless threatened.

Northern Israelis came out of their bomb shelters after 33 days, South Lebanese cars clogged roads heading south from Beirut Monday morning. Both met scenes of destruction. After night fell, Hizballah staged victory celebrations in Beirut, while its leader, Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed a “historic and strategic victory” over Israel.

The IDF’s northern command watching the thousands of displaced Lebanese flocking to their homes feared they would be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire for reinforcing its depleted South Lebanese forces.

By afternoon, their fears were realized: cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment were clearly visible heading south. Israeli troops were not authorized to stop them. DEBKAfile quotes a senior military source as saying that Hizballah is making a mockery of the ceasefire which Israel honored. “The situation is dangerous,” he said, Most of Hizballah’s fortifications, including its bunker network in the south, were not destroyed as reported. Fresh Hizballah strength is now heading back to man those war stations anew.

Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berrir asked for 48 hours to persuade Hassan Nasrallah to accept a new proposal for Hizballah forces to remain in the south with their arms as an auxiliary force attached to the Lebanese army units to be deployed south of the Litani River.

Israeli troops inside Lebanon will hold their positions until a strengthened international force and the Lebanese army are able to take over.
Posted by: Legolas || 08/14/2006 17:14 Comments || Top||

#4  This war is far from over.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/14/2006 17:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Interesting. Oh, to be a fly on the wall of PM OLmert's office the next few days!
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Anything silly happens across that border, those Soldiers are not returned, and Hizbollah is not disarmed - call up BiBi and Go to the Mattresses.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 18:22 Comments || Top||

#7  There is no point in allowing the Shiites back south. The Israelis are just setting themselves up for a guerilla war. On the contrary, the Israelis should be deporting Shiites and bulldozing all signs of Shiite habitation until the hostages are returned unharmed and Hizb'allah disbanded.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 18:33 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
2 Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian gunmen ambushed a car carrying a Fox News crew in Gaza City on Monday and kidnapped two of the journalists inside, according to witnesses and Fox. "We can confirm that two of our people were taken against their will in Gaza," Fox News said in a statement.

A Fox employee in Gaza, who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to release information about the incident, said the two kidnapped people were reporter Steve Centanni, a U.S. citizen, and a cameraman from New Zealand.

The men, along with a bodyguard, were parked near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services when two trucks filled with gunmen pulled up and boxed them in, according to the employee. The gunmen took the two out of their sports utility vehicle, which was marked "TV," and drove away, he said.

Major militant groups in Gaza denied having any connection to the abduction, and there was no immediate word of any demands made.

Security officials put police across Gaza on alert to find the gunmen and free the journalists, said Interior Ministry spokesman Khaled Abu Hilal.

"This is not acceptable at all," he said.

Several foreigners have been kidnapped in Gaza in recent months with their abductors demanding jobs from the Palestinian Authority or the release of people being held in Palestinian jails. All those kidnapped have been released within hours without harm.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 15:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Unfortunately, the paleos know that the Fox News reporters are harder to spin.

If they were NYT, ABC or CNN, the paleos would give them a medal. The fact that they work for Fox News does not bode well for their release.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 15:49 Comments || Top||

#2  OTOH, should any harm come to them, no other mainstream news organization would do a better job of stirring up American anger and mobilizing American public opinion even more against Palestinians than Fox. Careful, Palestine. You just stepped in it. Israel will have a freer hand now with bigtime American approval.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 15:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Return our FOX guyz, now, assholes.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 16:13 Comments || Top||

#4  This is not good. Fox has been on Israel's side this whole event. Time for Israel to pull a hat trick on this one!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 16:15 Comments || Top||

#5  My prayers are w/Steve Centanni & his cameraman.

It would seem the Paleos are trying to goad America into action. I for one would have no problem going there and getting our guy back if the call came down. They need to learn that f*cking w/even one American will bring the wrath of God on their stupid heads.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 08/14/2006 17:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Steve Centanni seems like a straight guy. I hope he is O.K. Might be easier to rescue him out of Gaza then Lebanon. Intel might also be better.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 17:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Touch Patti Ann and reap the whirlwind.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 17:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Intimidation of journalists works. You can bet the next FOX crew in Gaza will be walking on egg shells. Message received by all news media.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 17:56 Comments || Top||

#9  Is it my imagination, or has Fox completely clammed up on this? There doesn't seem to be anything on the web site, and I caught a Fox Middle East update that didn't mention it.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 08/14/2006 19:46 Comments || Top||

#10  So, after all this, Palestine thinks it would be prudent to take Americans Hostage as well?

Very, Very Unwise.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 19:50 Comments || Top||

#11  So, after all this, Palestine thinks it would be prudent to take Americans Hostage as well?

Very, Very Unwise.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 19:50 Comments || Top||

#12  So, after all this, Palestine thinks it would be prudent to take Americans Hostage as well?

Very, Very Unwise.

Bullshit. We'll do fuck-all to the Palestinians over this. Well, that's not quite right. We'll hand them a great big wad of cash, a couple of freighters full of guns and ammunition, and strongarm the Israelis into giving them more greenhouses to trash.

Face it, folks, our civilization doesn't want to live. The only open question is how long the corpse will stay warm and how much damage it will do while it's thrashing around.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/14/2006 21:18 Comments || Top||

#13  RC-I want to live. I am just one, but there are other just ones who want to live, too. However many of us there are, we need to start a chain reaction of pressure on Palestine and Lebanon, not get discouraged.

Arab culture is given a lot of credit for patience and focus, but they are not the only culture who can hang tough for the golden prize. The American Revolution holds a lot of cues for us to follow again.

The Islamic realm will keep fu**ing up-we'll have plenty of material to work with for persuading our currently nonchalant countrymen of how much is on the line-if we keep the pressure up and keep the film rolling. I am frustrated like you, but we need to remember why Americans have confidence in the first place-our ideas are the world's best hope and we will stand steadfast for those ideas.

Where I see failure is in the House and Senate-where are the representatives who have the power to really make Palestine pay for this? Or is the US gonna pull an Olmert, where we sigh and hedge and then cede the alpha role, only to regret it afterwards in the media? America's leaders-get on the ball. We can stand behind you, if you actually take a stand.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 22:08 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Mosaic Intelligence Report

Juan Cole, LinkTV, Mulsim groups join together to provide this video propaganda site. One must always be aware of what the 5th coulmn is up to so I felt this unified left/islam/anti-tech site needs awareness.
Example of opinion topics surrounding the video topics:

*
Arabic Media Internet Network contributor Uri Aveney wonders So What Has Happened to the Israeli Army? “This question is now being raised not only around the world, but also in Israel itself,” writes Aveney. “Clearly, there is a huge gap between the army's boastful arrogance, on which generations of Israelis have grown up, and the picture presented by this war.”

*
Juan Cole, President of the Global Americana Institute, reacts to the UN Ceasefire with a blog entry titled Israel Kills 38 Civilians on Eve of Ceasefire.

*
Link TV’s Director of Middle Eastern Programming and Mosaic: World News from the Middle East Producer Jamal Dajani explores A Refugee’s Lament for Beliefnet. “There is something universal about refugees,” says Dajani. “The longing for ones home and birthplace never dissipates. I’ve seen this with my parents, my Armenian friends, my Jewish friends, my Vietnamese friends, and the list goes on.”

*
Forward, a high-profile American weekly newspaper committed to covering the Jewish world, is featuring A Perfect Storm of Clouded Judgment, written by Steven Simon. The article address “a look at the conditions that merged to fuel the typhoon offers a sense of just what it will take to get through the situation.” “Aging revolutionary movements feel compelled to prove their continuing relevance and vitality, especially as they begin to fade into a quotidian political landscape,” writes Simon. “Call it the last fling of a mid-life crisis. The current tempest resulted in part from four such movements going through this phase simultaneously.”

*
Link TV’s Director of Current Affairs David Michaelis discusses his recent trip to his home country in a blog post on Israel — Rude Awakening. “‘Peace’ is a term not used in the public space in Israel anymore,” says Michaelis. “No one expects any dialogue on a real practical level. The military always offers a shortsighted immediate way out. The wish to identify with the power of the gun and the uniform is still alive in Israeli tribal DNA. Revenge is a word not used in the open; it is there in the undercurrent of the emotions expressed by the public, our bombardment of Gaza had the same motive behind it.”
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 14:58 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front Economy
Indra "Middle Finger" Nooyi promoted to CEO at Pepsico
The Pepsico CFO who likened the US to a middle finger has now been pushed upstairs.
PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP - news) on Monday promoted its president and chief financial officer, Indra Nooyi, to chief executive, succeeding Steve Reinemund, whose decision to retire after a successful five-year run caught some on Wall Street by surprise.

Nooyi, who has been involved in much of the major strategic planning for the company for several years, was expected to lead a smooth transition, and the stock rose slightly.

"I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that the choice was Indra. The surprise was Steve stepping aside," said David Kolpak, an analyst at Victory Capital Management, which owns 1.5 million PepsiCo shares.

Reinemund, 58, said he will leave next May to spend more time with his family. He will serve as executive chairman and as a director of PepsiCo, which makes Pepsi soda and Frito-Lay snacks, until his retirement.

The 50-year-old Nooyi, who takes over effective October 1, has been president and chief financial officer of PepsiCo since 2001, and was favored to take over the helm.

"Given Indra's involvement in the company's strategy, vision and her current role as president and chief financial officer, we would expect a seamless transition," William Pecoriello, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a research note.

Pecoriello called Reinemund's retirement a surprise, adding he had the "highest confidence" in Nooyi's ability to "lead the organization going forward into many years of solid performance."

The stock rose 25 cents to $63.58 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday. The shares are up about 44 percent since April, 2001, compared with a 5 percent decline in Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE:KO - news) shares over the same period.

PepsiCo stock is also up nearly 80 percent from a low under Reinemund of $35.60 in September 2002.

The largest U.S. company in terms of revenue run by a woman is grain processor Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE:ADM - news), which named Patricia Woertz as CEO in April. With Nooyi's appointment, PepsiCo would become the second-largest company headed by a woman.

Reinemund had moved back to Dallas about three years ago to be closer to his family, so the decision to retire was not a surprise, said Ken Harris, a partner in consulting firm Cannondale Associates.

Harris, who used to work with Nooyi, said that she brings several important qualities to the chief executive's job.

"No. 1, she's smart, smart, smart," Harris said. "The next thing is that she is a very good people manager."

Richard Goodman, 57, currently CFO of PepsiCo International, will become CFO of the corporation, and Hugh Johnston, 44, was promoted to the newly created position of executive vice president, operations. He had been PepsiCo's senior vice president, transformation.

Since Reinemund became chairman and CEO in May, 2001, PepsiCo has expanded its business. Most notably, it acquired Quaker Oats Co. for $13 billion three months after he took over, adding Gatorade sports drink and a host of food brands to the company's portfolio.

During his tenure, PepsiCo evolved from a company known mostly for selling soda pop and salty snacks into a $33 billion food company that has embraced the push into healthier options like Tropicana juices, Aquafina water and whole grain Quaker Oats Cereals, while seeing earnings soar.

"He's an ex-Marine. He prides himself on staying in shape, and health and wellness has been a real mantra for him at the company," said analyst Kolpak.

Kolpak noted that PepsiCo was ahead of most, if not all, of the food industry, in removing artery-clogging trans fats from its products.

From 2001 to 2005, the company's earnings per share jumped 80 percent, its dividend doubled, and its market capitalization increased to more than $100 billion.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/14/2006 14:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ken, I don't care if she's smart, smart, smart.

Her attitude, both elitist and anti-American, caused me and mine to buy not another Pepsico product. Dumped my stock and I haven't bought any Pepsico products since that Commencement address.
Posted by: Quana || 08/14/2006 14:36 Comments || Top||

#2  If she continues her little habit of making assumptions about her audience, the transition may go smoothly but the tenure... maybe not so good. I'm surprised by this promotion; PepsiCo is known in this part of the world as one of the places where Procter&Gamble graduates go to make money. And Proctoids as a group are pretty patriotic -- they know P&G is the best company to work for, and the US is the best country to live in (even those who leave the company, either sad because it just wasn't a good fit, or for more rapid opportunities available elsewhere). As a group they're awfully cute about it all. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||

#3  So I just buy RC.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||

#4  One more of the many reasons for me never to buy Pepsi.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/14/2006 15:29 Comments || Top||

#5  So glad I've never liked Pepsi. Always drank Coke and currently own Coca-Cola shares. Never will buy Pepsico and this really seals it.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 08/14/2006 15:58 Comments || Top||

#6  Haven't you heard? Soft drinks kill ya.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 15:59 Comments || Top||

#7  I just drank my last Mountain Dew. Man this is going to be tough, I love that crap. Thanks a pantload Pepsi.
Posted by: Mike N. || 08/14/2006 16:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Here's the powerline blog link with some details. I'll venture if she's that smart, she won't make the same mistake twice. Boycotted Pepsi since I read this...

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/010478.php
Posted by: Warthog || 08/14/2006 16:29 Comments || Top||

#9  She's been promoted?

I'll pop open a DIET COKE in celebration.

Oh, wait....
Posted by: Clesh Ebbealing8178 || 08/14/2006 16:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, crud. #9 was me. And on my home computer, too! :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:37 Comments || Top||

#11  I had to go back and look. May 2005. I haven't had a Pepsi in 15 months. Just tell Indra to consider it my middle finger...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 17:02 Comments || Top||

#12  For a company that hails its roots from Fayetteville NC they have really gone to hell. Guess Pepsi and Fritos are now RC cola and Moon Pies instead!!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 18:02 Comments || Top||

#13  Pepsi sponsors Jeff Gordon's 24 car - enough reason to dislike em. That said - I drink it
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 18:11 Comments || Top||

#14  Coke Zero.

And, for the ultimate in "More Americana Than Thou", remember that Disneyworld only serves Coke products.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 08/14/2006 18:30 Comments || Top||

#15  Perhaps she secretly craves that "Middle Finger". Wouldn't be the first time an accuser had a crush on the accused. Be it on or off, she can nonetheless get f&cked. Time to short Pepsico, they must not value their American consumer base too much.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Columnist John Leo hangs up his keyboard
Thanks for letting me be part of the conversation
By John Leo

This is a farewell column. After 18 years of punditry, it's time to work on other projects, including a book.

Now that I'm leaving, I should acknowledge that writing a column has to be one of the best jobs in the world. At a cost of only 750 words per week (with an occasional surcharge of sweating a bullet or two on deadline), you get to join what my friend and fellow columnist Richard Reeves calls "the conversation." He means the national dialogue, or whatever part of it you can shoulder your way into by being pertinent, witty, original, or whatever other trait induces people to read you.

The trait that admirers mostly accuse me of possessing is common sense. This is a mildly deflating compliment, but I understand it. What readers mean by this is that we now live in a national asylum run by buffoons, but at least a few minds still function normally, and mine seems to be one of them. I unabashedly agree with this assessment. . . .

Mostly, though, I want to thank my readers who followed my column so long and so loyally. This includes whole classrooms full of schoolchildren and those who sent family photos, Christmas tree ornaments (a seasonal regular) and long letters on how their daughters and sons are doing at college. A great many collegians wrote in themselves, leading me to believe there is some hope after all for our indoctrination-prone universities.

My best to you all, including the hundred-plus op-ed editors who chose to run the column. Some of these editors featured my column just to challenge conventional opinion in monocultural college towns. You know who you are. I will be setting up a Web site at JohnLeo.com (don't try it now; alas, it's not ready). Readers can reach me at johnleo2@optonline.com.

Go read it all. John Leo is a good writer and a class act, and we'll miss having him around.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 13:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Damn! We really can't afford to lose any of the good guys. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:52 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Three Army Rangers knock off Tacoma, WA bank
Edited for brevity.
A Canadian man suspected of helping three Fort Lewis [WA] Army Rangers rob a Tacoma bank last week turned himself in to U.S. authorities Sunday afternoon, said Michael Dion, an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. Tigray Robinson, 20, gave himself up to FBI agents in Washington near the Canadian border.

Robinson, the fourth suspect to be arrested in connection with last Monday's robbery, is scheduled to appear today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. A fifth suspect, believed to be Canadian, is still at large.

In court documents, an FBI agent said the robbers showed "military-style precision and planning" when they took over a Tacoma branch of Bank of America and stole $54,000. The suspects wore soft body armor and wielded what appeared to be AK-47 assault rifles. Alex Blum, 19; Chad Palmer, 20; and Luke Sommer, 20, three Army Rangers based at Fort Lewis, were arrested and charged with armed bank robbery last week. Palmer and Blum hold the rank of private first class.
What is it about BoA that attracts robbers with body armor and AK-47's? Besides the money, I mean...
Sommer, who holds the rank of specialist fourth class, is believed by law enforcement to be the ringleader. He was arrested Friday at a store in Peachland, British Columbia, his hometown. Sommer has dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship, according to a law-enforcement official.

According to charging papers, Blum said Sommer recruited two Canadians to take part in the robbery and paid Blum $10,000 to be the driver. A witness wrote down the license-plate number of the car Blum was driving, which is registered to Blum and his father.
Oops--it's always the little details that bite you in the left buttock.
Posted by: Dar || 08/14/2006 13:42 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kelly's Heroes Part Deux

[the lone obstacle to the sought-after gold is a solitary Tiger tank guarding the bank]
Crapgame: Try making a DEAL!
Big Joe: What kind of DEAL?
Crapgame: A DEAL, deal! Maybe he's a Republican. You know, "Business is business."
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 15:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Why do the newspapers hate army rangers? Nevermind, I think I know the answer.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 17:29 Comments || Top||

#3  What the hell were they thinking? The FBI has a 99.99% capture rate for bank robbers. But then they know that now.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/14/2006 18:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Article: A witness wrote down the license-plate number of the car Blum was driving, which is registered to Blum and his father.

I think it is now clear why Blum was a PFC.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/14/2006 18:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Robs a bank in his own car, what scared he might get grand theft auto. :)
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 19:17 Comments || Top||

#6  Whadya expect with lowered recruitment standards and PC leadership? Gangs, thugs and even skinheads have enlisted. I was in Baghdad and saw American gang graffiti on some of the buildings. Not that these three were gang members prior to the military, but I wouldn't be surprised. Wake up, military. There's a cancer in your midst.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 19:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Rangers should be thrice screened: basic, Airborne School, and Ranger Indoctrination Program. From the names, I would guess three surburban thrill seekers. Not too many gang bangers and punks make it into the Ranger Battalions.
Posted by: 11A5S || 08/14/2006 20:04 Comments || Top||

#8  They could be assigned to the Regiment, but still not be Rangers. I've got my doubts about this story.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Whoever these guys were, they were a disgwace to duh wegiment.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/14/2006 21:51 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mahmoud, I need a weblog
INTERNET users have slapped down Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his own online poll which went live with the fiesty leader’s blog overnight.

Iran state-TV encouraged Iranians to visit President Ahamdinejad’s blog, announcing that it had gone live on Sunday night.

Early voting was split, with 65 per cent voting “no”, but hours after US site Fox News ran a story on the President’s blog, only 2 per cent of voters agreed with Ahmadinejad.

An online poll on the President’s blog asks visitors: “Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word (sic) war?”.

The President’s first post is not for the time-challenged. In a 2300 word tract, Ahmadinejad veers between autobiographical snippets “During the era that nobility was a prestige and living in a city was perfection, I was born in a poor family in a remote village of Garmsar,” and occasional takes on Iran’s history. “I was born fifteen years after Iran was invaded by foreign forces - in August of 1940 - and the time that another puppet, named Mohammad Reza – the son of Reza Mirpange- was set as a monarch in Iran.”

He talks of himself as a gifted intellect. Despite being only in first grade at the time, Ahmadinejad writes of the late Ayatollah Khomeini speeches: “His message was invitation to the belief of monotheism - Unity and Oneness of God - and also justice, elimination of oppression, injustice and sedition in the world.”

It was towards the end of his schooling that his intellect began to shine: “I prepared myself for university admission test-conquer,” he writes. “And later on that year, I took the test. Although I had nose bleeding during the test, but I became 132nd student among over 400 thousand participants.”

He is scathing of the United States, not suprisingly, usually choosing to use the phrase “Great Satan USA”.

Iran has come down heavily on bloggers in the last six months, with some reports suggesting up to 50 have been jailed since President Ahmadinejad announced the crackdown. Blogging experienced huge growth in Iran under the moderate regime of President Mohammad Khatami.

After 2300 words, many typos and oddly translated grammar ("Our Revolution was unique in its own kind"), President Ahmadinejad promises: “From now onwards, I will try to make it shorter and simpler,” and assuring readers that there will be more, but not as much as his opening post: “I intend to wholeheartedly complete my talk in future with(in) allotted fifteen minutes.”
Posted by: tipper || 08/14/2006 13:39 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can you run a blog from hell?
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 16:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Depends on the Firewall.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||


-Short Attention Span Theater-
Libido lags for ladies in luck
THE female sex drive starts sputtering to a halt as soon as a woman has got her man, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that women's libido plummets so rapidly when they believe they are in a secure relationship that after just four years the proportion of 30-year-old women wanting regular sex falls below 50 per cent. There are few things that appear able to keep a woman sexually interested, the study found, but living apart for extended periods can help.

The findings for women contrast with those for men, whose sexual appetite hardly flagged at all up to 40 years after marriage.

The study, by researchers at Hamburg-Eppendorf University in Germany, challenges the popular image of modern women as equal to men in sexual appetite. "Female motivation matches male sexual motivation in the first years of the partnership and then steadily decreases," concludes Dietrich Klusmann, the medical psychologist who conducted the study.

"Male motivation remains constant regardless of the duration of the partnership." Dr Klusmann questioned more than 500 people about their sex lives in order to measure changes in their libido.

He found that within a year of a relationship starting, female libido moved into steep decline. While 60 per cent of 30-year-old women reported wanting sex "often" at the start of a relationship, the figure fell to below 50per cent within four years and to about 20 per cent after 20 years.

Dr Klusmann, whose work will be published this week in the journal Human Nature, has compared his findings to the sexual habits of prairie voles and offers an evolutionary explanation. He believes that women, having found a man with whom to procreate, keep "resources" scarce to keep the man interested. Men, on the other hand, maintain a higher sex drive in the hope of keeping their mate faithful and other men at bay.

The Germans found, however, that living apart slows the decline in female libido, confirming the maxim "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Women whose husbands or boyfriends have higher educational qualifications than their own also maintain their sex drive. This, speculates Dr Klusmann, is because such men are regarded as a "valuable mate of choice" by other women.

The German study is reinforced by an investigation by Mary Carole Pistole of Purdue University in Indiana, whose work suggests the healthiest relationships are among people whose loved ones live hundreds of kilometres away.

Dr Klusmann's findings were, however, attacked by Irma Kurtz, the agony aunt for Cosmopolitan magazine, who said: "Of course women in their 30s with children, careers and the house to run are too busy and tired for sex, but they have a great capacity for tenderness." Petra Boynton, a sex psychologist, agreed: "Surveys like this don't always tell the real truth.

"Women are more likely to divulge their problems while men feel under pressure to say they are good in bed because their masculinity requires it."

But Paula Hall, a sexual psychotherapist with Relate, a couples guidance service, backed the German study. She said that in the first two years of a relationship both partners produced phenylethylamine, a natural amphetamine that has been called the chemical of love.

"After those two years the woman's sexual drive changes," said Dr Hall. "She becomes receptive rather than proactive and unless there is a trigger she will prefer to have a cup of tea and watch Coronation Street."

Dr Klusmann's researchers also asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement "I just want to be tender". On this measure, men's performance fell off as quickly as women's sexual desire.
No .. kidding.
Women's desire for tenderness remains an almost constant 90 percent whatever their age and regardless of whether they have been with the same man for one year or four decades. Men claim to be just as doe-eyed as women at the start of the relationship, but this wears off very rapidly. Only a quarter of 30-year-old men who have been in a relationship for 10 years are still seeking tenderness.

"Cuddling is important for women and they may say they want tenderness because they do not like to express sexual desire and can only do so from the dialogue of romance," said Dr Boynton.
Posted by: tipper || 08/14/2006 13:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "absence makes the hard grow fonder"
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 15:27 Comments || Top||

#2  The German study is reinforced by an investigation by Mary Carole Pistole of Purdue University in Indiana, whose work suggests the healthiest relationships are among people whose loved ones live hundreds of kilometres away.

Ok, yeah.....if you are the type to constantly fight over how the toilet paper roll should face in the holder and how the towels should be folded. Otherwise, not so much.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 16:50 Comments || Top||

#3  This is a typical example of a study without sufficient controls to be truly called science.

Too many variables - what about children, income levels, mean age at time of marriage, etc., etc., etc?

It is a sad tribute to the state of science education, and in particular, the understanding of the scientific method, that "studies" like this are funded and published and read and believed to be significant.
Posted by: no mo uro || 08/14/2006 20:00 Comments || Top||


Europe
Spanish police find 'drugs' sub
A submarine which police say may have been used for cocaine smuggling has been found floating off Spain's north-western coast. It was spotted by a member of the public in an inlet along the rugged coastline on Sunday. No drugs were found on board the vessel, but it is now being dismantled at a shipyard in Moana, near Vigo.
Could have be intended as a drug sub, could have been a human torpedo. Big US navy base in Rota, not to mention the British base at Gibraltar
It is reported to be about 10m (33ft) long, made by amateurs from basic materials, not by professionals.

Jaime Gonzalez, a journalist in the north-western city of Santiago de Compostela, told the BBC World Service's Europe Today programme that the region was well-known as a gateway for drugs into Europe. While submarines are not known to have been used for drug trafficking in Spain, they have been used for this purpose in Colombia. "It could take drugs from a ship in the ocean and take them to the coast without being seen," Mr Gonzalez said. "There has been nothing like this before in Spain. It is an example of how narco-traffickers are advancing in technology."

Mr Gonzalez said it was thought that the submarine could have been built in southern Spain, in Andalucia, and brought to the north-western region of Galicia by road. He said one theory was that the vessel was undergoing tests when a technical problem arose. The owners may have been planning to return to it, he added, if the police had not got there first.
Posted by: Steve || 08/14/2006 13:07 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In a town in northern Spain,
Lived a man who sailed to sea,
And he tried to smuggle drugs,
Using home-made submarines,

So we built a boat from scratch,
To try to earn a bit of green,
And we dove beneath the waves,
In our home-made submarine,

We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine,
We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine,

So we went to Home Depot,
Made our hull from PVC,
Got some Krylon spray paint black,
For our home-made submarine,

We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine,
We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine,

Once the cocaine's all aboard,
And the "Christmas Tree" shows green,
Hook the wires to a Sears Die-Hard,
And dive our home-made submarine,

We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine,
We all live in a home-made submarine,
home-made submarine, home-made submarine . . .
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 15:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Bravo!
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#3  Will they do a cartoon based on Mike song too? It could be mighty psychedelic, depending if the right type of drug is smuggled.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 17:17 Comments || Top||

#4 
Shopping list:

Twenty 55-gallon drums of baking powder... check!
Posted by: Seafarious || 08/14/2006 17:32 Comments || Top||

#5  Some drums of vinegar---check!

Mike---Great song parody! The topic spoke to you, and ye did will, laddie.
Posted by: Alaska Paul at Anchorge Airport || 08/14/2006 17:54 Comments || Top||

#6  A cocaine sub sounds devilishly expensive to operate. I'm with Seafarious. Stay with the baking soda.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 18:00 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Lessons to Learn in the War on Islamofascism
Long, but worth reading.

ISRAEL'S war against the Middle East's first true terrorist army provides tough military and strategic lessons - old, new, and all too often disheartening. Israel's been winning on the ground. And still losing the war.
This bitter conflict raises troubling questions, too. Some are identical to those confronting us in Iraq. Many have troubling answers. Others have no real answers at all.

The elementary fact - which far too many in the West deny - is that our civilization has been forced into a defensive war to the death with fanatical strains of Islam - both Shi'a and Sunni. We may be on the offensive militarily, but we did not start this war - and it's all one war, from 9/11's Ground Zero, through Lebanon and Iraq, and on to Afghanistan.

Until that ugly fact gains wide acceptance, we'll continue to make little decisive progress. American or Israeli, our troops are trying. But the truth is that we're really just holding the line.

We have not yet begun to fight. And many among us still dream of avoiding this war altogether.

It can't be done. Because our enemies - Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Islamist militias, regimes in Iran, Syria and elsewhere - are determined to confront us.

We're going to learn the hard way. But we're going to learn.

Meanwhile, here's what the latest battlefield has to say to us:

Lesson 1: You can win every tactical engagement and still lose at the strategic level.

Israel's fought well. But its forces did a polite minuet, while its enemy's danced madly in the streets. The Israeli Defense Forces have done what their government asked of them. But the Olmert government asked them to do the wrong things - and to do too little for too long.

On the ground, in the air and at sea, the IDF or our own forces can't be beaten. But without sound strategic planning, our tactical wins will not add up to victory. We have to re-learn this lesson again and again: Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq - and now Lebanon.

Lesson 2: The global media can overturn the verdict of the battlefield.

Too many politicians and generals still don't get it. This new truth about war slapped us in the face during the First Battle of Fallujah. Now, facing a hostile global media, the Israelis are learning it.

Lesson 3: If you start off on the wrong foot in war, you may never recover your balance.

This old rule never changes. The Israeli government dreamed of fighting a short, clean war on the cheap. Now they're playing incremental catch-up. It's a formula for stalemate, if not defeat. If you must go to war, go with everything you've got. From Day One. In war, the only bargain at any price is victory.

Lesson 4: Technology alone can't win 21st-century wars.

You've heard it before and, sadly, you'll hear it again. These asymmetrical, brutal human conflicts require flesh-and-blood solutions - boots on the ground, not just airpower.

Lesson 5: Never underestimate your enemy.

Another timeless rule. The Israelis did it in 1973, and now they've done it again. They undervalued Hezbollah's preparedness for a serious war, its armaments, its training - and its tenacity. And we ourselves did it after Baghdad fell.

This is one of the worst mistakes any government and military can make.

Lesson 6: In war, take the pain up front, and the overall suffering will be far less.

A policy of casualty aversion - in Israel or in the United States - results in more casualties in the end. Because the IDF wasn't permitted to wage a serious war from the first day (and it remains severely restricted even now), the rockets continued to rain down on Israel - while Hezbollah won the propaganda war.

Lesson 7: Terrorism is no longer a limited, diffuse, disorganized threat.

Hezbollah has an army, if of a new and innovative kind. Iran and Syria supply, support and succor it. It has strategic depth and startling resilience.

With Hezbollah on point, Shi'a terror is now better-prepared to wage post-modern war than Sunni organizations such as al Qaeda. We're witnessing the rise of trans-national terrorist armies.

There are many more lessons, especially down at the soldier level. But let's turn to two critical questions:

Can a military that relies heavily on reserve call-ups win this new kind of war? For Israel, it's an existential question. My own conclusion is that the IDF, as currently structured, is living on borrowed time. Having seen our own forces operating in Iraq and the IDF at work along the Lebanese border, my frank assessment is that Israel's brave reserve brigades would crumble in fights such as those in Fallujah or Ramadi. This isn't the West Bank anymore. This is war to the death. The IDF must stop looking backward toward its proud heritage and look honestly at the future of war.

Can we win "Eastern" wars with Western values? I doubt it.

This question is going to eat at our consciences for years to come - even as we learn to do what must be done.

Despite media lies about Israeli "atrocities," the IDF has been doing all it can to spare civilians. For example, the Israelis repeatedly risked commando teams deep in hostile territory to take out Hezbollah command-and-control cells - instead of just leveling the crowded apartment buildings where the terrorists were hiding. But, ultimately, all of the special operations in the world will fall far short of delivering decisive, crushing victories. We are going to have to learn to fight by the enemy's rules. And we aren't going to like it.

The wars of the future will be won by those with the greater strength of will. And boundless determination is one weapon that Islamist extremists unquestionably possess.

Do we?

Ralph Peters' new book is "Never Quit The Fight."
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/14/2006 13:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We are going to have to learn to fight by the enemy's rules. And we aren't going to like it.

We, white man?
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 13:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Peters does not say anything about the Second Battle of Fallujah. Seems like the second battle of Fallujah addresses a lot of his concerns about waging modern battles. Interestingly enough, what he has to say is not much different than the way WW II was waged by the Allies. It is however, difficult to wage a war with a hostile press and the looney left ever present.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 14:12 Comments || Top||

#3  An old wise man said :"when you go on a spree, go the whole hog including the postage".

Olmert should have known that there is no such thing as half a pregnancy. I hope he pays with his job for his lack of insight.
I also hope our next PM will carefully plan and then fearlessly execute a full fledged war on the true masters of the Hizbulla.
Its time we give the world a wake up call, or else we will find ourselves being evaporated by Ahmadinagad's shining new weapons within a year or two.
I also say fuck the entire world, we should do what is best for us and our closest allies.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 15:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Ripley:I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Aliens.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 15:57 Comments || Top||

#5  With you, EoZ. World opinion is worthless.

Destroy Iran NOW.
Posted by: SR-71 || 08/14/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#6  World opinion only means leftist news media opinion.

Long term, the LLL legacy media cannot sustain it's lie barrage especially as the "blog special forces" are surgically striking at their wekanesses.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/14/2006 16:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Lesson 7: Terrorism is no longer a limited, diffuse, disorganized threat.

That's the money line. This is WWIV (Cold War=WWIII). We had better find the courage to fight this one rather soon. The 9-11 atrocity was our Pearl Harbor. Too bad that so many Americans no longer have any direct memory of WWII. Much of the same resolve and determination will be required to come out of this alive.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:49 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Sharon's Condition Deteriorates (More aware than believed?)
JERUSALEM -- Ariel Sharon's condition has deteriorated, according to the hospital where the ailing former Israeli prime minister is being treated. A spokeswoman wouldn't say whether Sharon's life was in danger, but said doctors were treating him with broad-spectrum antibiotics and steroids.

A new scan showed a deterioration in his brain function, ...
Maybe he really was able to sense this so-called cease-fire, and it is something his brain just can't handle.
... his urine output has decreased significantly and a chest scan showed that he has a new infection in his lungs, according to Anat Dolev, spokeswoman for the Chaim Sheba Medical Center.
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/14/2006 13:02 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  US Democrats would have pulled the plug long ago.

Sharon is a heroic and historic figure. Too bad he started land for pieces.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Oslo started it, rather.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#3  If Castro is still alive and makes it longer than Mr. Sharon, there is no justice.
Posted by: Jackal || 08/14/2006 22:29 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
"He's not dead, Jim. Dammit"
Cuba's official Communist Party newspaper has published new pictures of ailing President Fidel Castro. The photos show Mr Castro in bed, smiling and shaking hands with the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, on the Cuban leader's 80th birthday.
Wearing lovely matching red shirts
The six pictures appear on the online version of the newspaper Granma.

It follows the publication on Sunday of the first photographs of President Castro since he underwent intestinal surgery two weeks ago. Mr Castro's brother, Raul, 75, who has temporarily taken over the president's duties, appears in one of the pictures. Granma called the bedside visit "Three Hours of Emotional Exchange". The photos show gifts being exchanged and the two leaders eating what Granma called a "frugal snack".

The accompanying story quoted Mr Chavez - one of Mr Castro's closest political allies - as saying: "This is the best visit I've ever had in my life." He is reported to have expressed admiration for the Cuban leader's stamina, saying: "What kind of human being is this? What material is it made of?" The Venezuelan leader is quoted as saying that Mr Castro is made of caguairan - likening Cuba's revolutionary leader to a sturdy tropical hardwood tree.

Earlier Raul Castro made his first public appearance since taking over, welcoming Mr Chavez to Havana.

On Sunday, Mr Castro also released a statement, saying his health had improved considerably but warning that his recovery would not be quick. "I ask you all to be optimistic and at the same time to be ready to face any adverse news," the statement said. He thanked Cubans for their loving support and said he "felt very happy" on his birthday.
Posted by: Steve || 08/14/2006 13:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Photos, shmotos. Give me video. Photos are too easy to easy to publish as legitimate ala reuters fake.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 13:50 Comments || Top||

#2  Where's Raul?

Everyone scrambles back into place as Franco Castro ends his staged honeymoon death.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 15:54 Comments || Top||

#3  Adidas shirts, no shots below waste. C-bag for sure.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:30 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Leb Army Can't Disarm Hezbollah Fighters
IT was supposed to be the day the maligned Lebanese army took control of the country's borders and policed the UN ceasefire. Instead, the military commanders were left humiliated and troops stranded as Hezbollah told them not to disarm its fighters.

The first infantry units were preparing to head south when Hezbollah showed who controls the area by announcing it would not surrender its weapons.

General Michel Sleiman, commander-in-chief of the Lebanese army, and his lieutenants had been invited to join cabinet meetings to finalise plans to deploy the 15,000-strong force south of the Litani River. But they were lectured by Hezbollah's two ministers in the coalition Government on what the army could and could not do.

In Beirut, Western diplomats said the standoff raised concerns about the army's ability to deal with Hezbollah. The Lebanese Government is left struggling to maintain a united front after unanimously backing the UN resolution on Saturday. "The Government can't force Hezbollah to abide by the ceasefire," Economics Minister Sami Haddad said. "It's unnatural to have an armed political party in cabinet that does not abide by what the Government of Lebanon wants."
Unnatural, that pretty well describes the Hezbies.
Nabih Berri, the Speaker of the Lebanese parliament and the Shia politician best placed to negotiate with Hezbollah, asked for 48 hours to broker a deal.

The standoff came after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said his fighters would respect the ceasefire, describing the deployment of Lebanese and foreign troops to the south as "an honourable move". But without Lebanese troops or the planned international force in the intended demilitarised zone, there is little prospect of the ceasefire holding.

There were optimistic murmurs about trying to integrate Hezbollah fighters into the army. But Hezbollah seems to have decided that the demand for its fighters to disarm and leave the 20km arms-free zone would show it as losers in the conflict.

Defence Minister Elias Murr said in the early days of the war: "We will defend our land until the last soldier, and we will pay any price for our land." But troops retreated to their barracks or lounged on armoured vehicles in a token effort to police checkpoints around the capital or protect key buildings.

Elias Hanna, a retired Lebanese general, said: "Sending 15,000 troops south is a political solution, not a military one. It's more a PR stunt. The army needs the international force to help it.

"The key objective is to keep the army united and not have it split on factional lines, as it did in the civil war."

The army's equipment is poor, and no match for the Israelis. Lebanon has no air force or navy.

One soldier said Hezbollah was better armed and organised, and that he was reluctant to confront "the resistance fighters". Another soldier said his brother and a cousin were fighting for Hezbollah. "I can't turn a gun on the resistance, because they are family," he said.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:56 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Disarming yourself is just so dang tough.
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 13:28 Comments || Top||

#2  signing an agreement with muslims is like writing on water.
thay have a religious law which allows them to cheat dhimmies and lie to any Kafir.
Mark my words, there will be another big conflagration within 6 months from today !
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 14:49 Comments || Top||

#3  signing an agreement with muslims is like writing on water.

Well said!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 14:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Leb Army Can't Won't Disarm Hezbollah Fighters

There - fixed that for ya'.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:48 Comments || Top||

#5  Leb Army Can't Disarm Hezbollah Fighters

Which gives Israel the unabashed right to shut off each and every conduit for weaopns reaching Hezbollah. This includes Lebanese military depots, all trans-border rail connections and paved roads plus each and every donkey trail through the backwoods and mountain passes. A massive bombing campaign should proceed to eliminate all of these resupply paths and then rekindle a renewed thrust against Hezbollah while they are still on the ropes to finally put paid to these scumbags.

Lebanon (and Syria) must be confronted for their complicity in Hezbollah's constant attacks against Israel. Having terrorists sitting in your government and its committees is something all other civilized countries must not countenance. Such validation of terrorism brings us one step closer to appeasing negotiating with them as legitimate arbiters of politics, which they must never be.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 20:10 Comments || Top||


Europe
The problem with Gunter Grass, Waffen SS volunteer
Guenther Grass, the German novelist and Nobel prize-winner, has been oh-so-very-keen to moralize all his life. Everyone must tell the truth, that is his message, and Germans especially must tell the truth because for ever their country will be associated with Auschwitz. Truth-telling for him meant criticizing the United States at every opportunity, defending the Soviet Union as far as possible, and pointing an accusing finger at fellow Germans for covering up their Hitlerite past.

To be sure, The Tin Drum — the novel that won him the Nobel Prize — always looked more like a cover-up of Nazism than a critique of it. Its line is that Hitler was an evil magician who cast a spell over helpless Germans. In simple reality, Hitler was a politician who told the Germans exactly what they wanted to hear, and they voted him into power, and then fought for him to the bitter end. Germans believed that they were making a rational choice in backing Hitler, and to ascribe the compact they made with him to magic is to apologize for it.

And now it emerges that our oh-so-moral Grass was a member of the SS, a fact that he has been carefully concealing since 1945. So much for truth-telling, and forcing his fellow Germans to confront their ugly past. His biographer, a specially disillusioned man, says that the revelation now “puts in doubt from a moral point of view anything he has ever told us.” Indeed so. Grass’s constant attacks on the United States and the free world, for instance, turn out to be mere repetitions and embellishments of everything his SS instructors will have taught him about the wickedness of democracy and capitalism. His name will be associated for ever with hypocrisy.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/14/2006 12:53 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let me borrow from something I posted in another thread on another of my favorite blogs:

Grass, at age 17, joined the SS, a fanatical pagan anti-Semitic organization dedicated to nationalistic socialism (what do you think "Nazi" stands for?) which, among other things, committed atrocities on an industrial scale.

After the war, he transferred his allegiance to communism, a fanatical atheistic, anti-Semitic ideology which, among other things, committed atrocities on an industrial scale (and still does in China and North Korea and Cuba). Communism collapsed, but Grass continues to be an adherent to the anti-globalist position.

After 9/11, he has been openly supportive of al-Qaida, a fanatical anti-Semitic organization which, among other things, seeks to commit atrocities on an industrial scale.

Does anyone else see a pattern here?
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 13:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Stick with Ernst Junger. For Junger, National Socialism was too soft, pointlessly racist, and shallow.
Posted by: borgboy || 08/14/2006 15:03 Comments || Top||

#3  read Guy Sajer
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 08/14/2006 15:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Had to read his Shite in college.
Posted by: Iblis || 08/14/2006 16:27 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Destruction Is Lots Easier than Construction
EXTREMISTS SUSPECTED IN BURNING OF RADIO STATION

LOGAR PROVINCE , Afghanistan – The Radio Istiqlal station in the Baraki Barak District here was burned down Aug. 11 after a night letter was distributed around town earlier in the week condemning music and “decadent” western-type behavior.

No one was seriously injured in the fire, although the station manager had burns on his hands and fee. All the studio equipment was ruined.

“I tried to save equipment inside, but the fire was very strong and I was not able to save anything except for the generator which was located at the kitchen,” said Lal Mohamad, station manager. “I realized that my coat was burning and I stopped trying to put the fire out when I realized that my feet and hands were also burned.”

Radio Istiqlal was established with its first broadcast in April 2004. This radio station was popular with the community and broadcast 10 hours of news and entertainment per day.

Radio Istiqlal broadcasted a variety of issues concerning the development of Afghanistan and the local community. Issues covered weekly included poverty, illiteracy, security, corruption, local governance, parliament and the opium trade.
There are days when I've wanted to burn down the local NPR station ...
“Despite such a despicable act against free speech and information, the Afghan people will not be dissuaded from moving forward,” said Col. Thomas Collins, Coalition spokesman. “The extremists who perpetrated this crime are criminals who are against any form of individual expression, including simply listening to music or hearing local news.”

Sounds like a reasonable place to deploy some US money.
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/14/2006 12:50 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "...are criminals who are against any form of individual expression, including simply listening to music or hearing local news."

Hey, we have something in common. I'm also against hearing local news.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/14/2006 12:56 Comments || Top||

#2  condemning music and “decadent” western-type behavior.

"Stop that unseemly frivolity and mirth at once!"
Posted by: eLarson || 08/14/2006 13:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I was not able to save anything except for the generator which was located at the kitchen
SPoD?
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 17:13 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia to conduct massive Air Defense exercise
The Russian Air Force is all set to deploy latest S-300 air defense systems during a five-day combined air defense exercise in the south of the country this week, a military spokesman revealed on Monday.

"The active phase of a command-and-staff exercise at the Ashuluk test range on August 15-19 will be supervised by Colonel General Yury Solovyev, the head of the Russian Air Force Special Command," Alexander Drobyshevsky said.

The official said 10 S-300 air defense systems and more than 30 aircraft, including MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker fighters, would participate in the exercise.

S-300 Favorit (NATO designation SA-10 Grumble) air defense system can simultaneously engage up to six targets at altitudes from 30 feet to 16.7 miles.

Russia completed in May 2006 the delivery of S-300 systems to Belarus to improve the effectiveness of the Integrated Air Defense System of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Of course, if a stray Iranian missile just happens to go off course and head to Moscow on the 22nd, it will just be pure luck that they were all there doing a live-fire exercise.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 12:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  lol this will be fun to watch, how many missiles will wither away and die at thier launch like so many of the Russians crap do.
Posted by: Shep UK || 08/14/2006 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Headline could have been: "Russia had difficulty getting over not being the USSR."
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 14:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Russian stuff is not crap
Posted by: Clerert Uneamp2772 || 08/14/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||

#4  from 30 feet to 16.7 miles
What's the range of a JSOW?
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 18:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Wikipedia says 15 nautical miles for low-altitude launch, 65 for high altitude.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:37 Comments || Top||

#6  SA-10 almost started a war between Greece and Turkey. The range is around 100miles.
Posted by: Clerert Uneamp2772 || 08/14/2006 21:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Muslim Sororities 'Revolutionary' Network
"'I thought this was something revolutionary,' Mrs. Collins said. 'We are building a sorority established on the tradition of the sunnas; the ways of the prophet [Mohammed].'"

Now, Muslim teaching and prayers are part of campus life. Gamma Gamma Chi is there as "America's first Islamic sorority," according to Julia Duin of The Washington Times.

From Baptist to Methodist to Islam. That's the journey that the organizer took to find "truth" in the Koran. And that is frightening.

The Koran is replete with killing and torture passages that are regarded as dictates from the Koran's deity, Allah. Further, the Koran is the baseline for Islam's mistreatment of women.

If the sororities grow throughout America, it will be another propaganda tool by which to present Islam as a "peace religion" when in fact it is a killing cult. Civilized societies put down killing cults.

Therefore, Islam, not being a world religion among world religions, should be put down by our republic. There is no other religion on Earth that dictates that those NOT devotees must be slain or made slaves. Yet that is the goal of the Koran's Allah. Islam world rule is the final completion.

Therefore, with Islamic sororities on campuses, one can imagination that the young females will easily be indoctrinated into a fellowship of Islam-as-peace cultic allegiance.

"Thirteen women at the University of Kentucky will form the sorority's first college chapter this spring, and another group is waiting to start at the University of Maryland's Baltimore campus. A citywide chapter in the District, made up of women from several local universities, is also in the works.

"Along with pledges, there will be prayer to Allah. Instead of hazing, there's hijab, the scarf some devout Muslim women wear. Covering one's hair is not mandated within Gamma Gamma Chi.

"Imani Abdul-Haqq came up with concept for Gamma Gamma Chi while rushing sororities at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. She who converted to Islam in 1999. Since then, she has designed a line of Islamic wear, including T-shirts for women with slogans like 'Real Women Pray' and 'NO, I Am Not Oppressed.' "'They think it's due time we have a organization like this for Muslim women,' she said, 'which helps them grow as women, leaders and part of many communities. It also gives them a chance to network.'"

And of course networking they will do. If it is according to the Koran legalism, it will be quite a dangerous networking -- not only for those in the group, but those off-campus in surrounding neighborhoods. Islam spreads its teachings purposefully with the goal of taking over, no matter how benign it may start or appear as time moves along.

"Before joining, members must recite a creed, learn the sorority song and take part in a secret induction ceremony that deals with 'the values of the sorority' such as sisterhood and philanthropy.

"To date, Gamma Gamma Chi has heard from young women in 18 states, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates."
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:26 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Get your peanuts, ice cold lemonaide, goat dogs on a Keiser bun..... the Congressional Muslim Caucus will convene in 15 minutes.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 19:57 Comments || Top||

#2  A political orgnization, diretly opposed to the Constitution and GOD, recruiting from the sewers of hate in the Middle east.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 21:35 Comments || Top||

#3  If one can somehow disregard terrorism, Islam's institutionalized abuse of women alone is sufficient reason to dismantle it.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:52 Comments || Top||


National Guard Bill Opposed By Governors
WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2006 (UPI) -- U.S. governors strongly oppose a pending bill that would allow the president to take control of the National Guard during a national threat or emergency.

In a letter to be sent to Congress, the governors will ask a House-Senate conference committee to strike down that provision from the House-approved National Defense Authorization Act, reports The Washington Post. The provision will apply in the event of a natural disaster or a threat to homeland security.

"This provision was drafted without consultation or input from governors and represents an unprecedented shift in authority from governors as commanders in chief of the Guard to the federal government," the Post quoted the letter as saying.

An official with the National Governors Association said, "Any effort to take that authority away from governors at the very least confuses the chain of command and at the worst could severely hamper state efforts to respond to emergencies."
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Notice no where in this do the 'Governors' admit they kept their mouths shut while the Gov of Louisiana screwed up royally and then along with the MSM tried to put the blame on the sitting President. This is the result of playing cheap short term politics. They don't like the shift in power, but they certainly made the reason for this change possible. Now learn something. Quit being stuck on stupid.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 13:07 Comments || Top||


-Lurid Crime Tales-
Original Moon Landing Film Lost
The original film footage of astronaut Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, one of the most important artifacts of the 20th century, has been lost.

The television broadcast seen by about 600 million people in July 1969 is preserved for posterity, but the original tapes from which the footage was taken have been mislaid, most likely in NASA's vast archives at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The footage could transform our view of the moon landings, offering images far sharper than the blurred, grainy video shown around the world. It also could lay to rest the conspiracy theory that the landings were faked on a Hollywood soundstage.

Despite its iconic status, the television footage was the equivalent of a photocopy of a photocopy. It came from a camera that had been pointed at a black-and-white monitor on Earth. The image on the monitor, in turn, had been stripped of much of its detail. To make sure the transmission would make it back to Earth, the images sent from Apollo 11 were recorded at 10 frames per second, and had to be converted to 60 frames per second in order to be broadcast. In the process, much of the detail was lost.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:12 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That's certainly sad from a historic point of view, but as for the loss of a sharper and more detailed clip of the moon landing don't we have clips from the subsequent landings?
Posted by: Dar || 08/14/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes they do. In fact, many of them have been digitized. Unfortunately, we're talking about the original of the first landing. You just can't calculate the historical significance, as you pointed out.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#3  The original was lost because there is no original. The footage broadcast was all degraded on purpose to make it harder to see that it was really filmed on a back lot in Hollywood.

See how easy it is to be a conspiracy theorist!
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/14/2006 12:48 Comments || Top||

#4  That was scary glenmore. You do that too easily.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||

#5  When I was 16 many moons ago I believe all the govt. conspiracy crap. but when I started dealing with the govt. like SSA, Post Office, VA, hell the FBI none of these agency could keep a secret if it tried let alone hatch a conspiracy.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 13:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Conversation w/ 12 year old.,

"Did they reallty land on the moon ?"

ME: "did yoou study the space program in school ?"

"YEs"

Me : " The why did we go to the moon "?

" To beat the Russians "

Me " and who would hav had the equipment to know and been the first to cry foul had it not been true ?"

" The Russians"

ME "Did they ?"

"No"

ME "Case Closed".
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 13:17 Comments || Top||

#7  Probably was in the WTC where the U.S. Government stuffed it along with hundreds of tons of other embarassing documents (not to mention Jimmy Hoffa's body) to be destroyed on 9/11...

If you look closely at the films you can see Hoffa's left testicle foot being blown thru a window in the initial blast - just before the airliner hit.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 14:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Was Photoshop available in 1969?
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 14:27 Comments || Top||

#9  Don't worry, boys. It's in a safe place.
Posted by: mojo || 08/14/2006 15:35 Comments || Top||

#10  No problem. Was biking out in Irvine this weekend and saw the old Airship hangers are still intact.

They can reshoot the landing anytime they want.
Posted by: kelly || 08/14/2006 17:00 Comments || Top||

#11  Get some pictures Kelly!
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Anyone so dense as to doubt the moon landings is not worth convincing anyway. It is nearly impossible to comprehend how people can be so incredibly stupid. I rate them right up there with Holocaust deniers.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:43 Comments || Top||

#13  This is what happens when you hire minimum wage high school students and work studies to do your filing.

To new work study: "Look at the file number, it goes *after* the littler numbers and *before* the bigger numbers. Can you understand that?"

It is to weep for, the amount of time I have spent looking for misplaced files.
Posted by: VA clerk || 08/14/2006 22:29 Comments || Top||

#14  Was Photoshop available in 1969?

Sure! So was MS Word. Just ask Dan Rather.
Posted by: DMFD || 08/14/2006 22:52 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Raul Castro: Cocaine Connection?
Federal prosecutors in Miami were prepared to indict Raul Castro as the head of a major cocaine smuggling conspiracy in 1993, but the Clinton Administration Justice Department overruled them, current and former Justice Department officials tell ABC News.

The officials say Castro, as Cuban Defense Minister, permitted Colombian drug lords to pay for the use of Cuban waters and airstrips as staging grounds for smuggling runs into the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s.

"It was a major investigation involving numerous witnesses that was killed at the highest levels in Washington," said a former Justice Department official with direct knowledge of the case. . . .
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 12:04 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I recall reading about Raul's cocaine connection several years back.

Are we outta brothers yet?
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Thanks Bubba!! You made our job so much more, er, challenging. On all fronts. From Afghanistan to Zimbobwe.

It all boils down to Liberal = Hoser. If there is a pile of geopolitical cow shit anywhere in the world within the last 2 decades, a democrat will have stepped in it and tracked it all over the house.
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 13:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Isn't el dealer maximo one of the nicknames of fidel? I think the castro bros' links with cocaine narcotraffic is well known, for those who don't revere this pos.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 16:13 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Crocodile Tears for Joe
By Robert Novak

WASHINGTON -- Mary Matalin, longtime Republican political operative and Vice President Dick Cheney's adviser, seemed near tears on the Fox News Channel Tuesday night as adverse voting returns for Sen. Joseph Lieberman came in from Connecticut. With Matalin a reliable indicator of her party's line, she began an outpouring of GOP grief over Lieberman's Democratic primary defeat. That was a remarkable reaction to a liberal senator who has given George W. Bush scant help on any issue other than Iraq, from which he now also has retreated.

In Lieberman's and my school days, this would be called shedding crocodile tears (defined by Webster's as "a hypocritical show of sorrow"). Cheney himself deplored Connecticut's results, and presidential adviser Karl Rove placed a publicized telephone call to the senator. Republicans cast anti-war primary winner Ned Lamont as a cross between Joe McCarthy and George McGovern. Contradicting his 18-year Senate voting record, Lieberman is identified as a Democratic centrist (supposedly one of the last of that breed).

With Republican morale sliding three months before midterm elections, Connecticut provided welcome news for GOP strategists. Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman on the day after the primary was in Cleveland facing a Republican meltdown in Ohio and warned of a McGovernite takeover of the Democratic Party by elitists. Mehlman described Rep. Sherrod Brown, a left-wing congressman who leads Republican Sen. Mike DeWine for re-election, as a Midwestern Lamont.

But how different from Lieberman would Lamont vote in the Senate? Not much. President Bush, always seeking Texas-style centrists, famously hugged and kissed Lieberman on the House floor after delivering the 2005 State of the Union Address. Aside from Iraq, it has been unrequited love with Lieberman consistently denying Bush needed votes. Lieberman was in Connecticut campaigning Aug. 3 when the Senate again failed to break a filibuster against estate tax relief, but he would have voted no had he been there.

In key votes of the last Congress selected by the Almanac of American Politics, Lieberman followed the straight liberal line in opposing oil drilling in ANWR, Bush tax cuts, overtime pay reform, the energy bill, and bans on partial birth abortion and same-sex marriage. Similarly, he voted in support of Roe v. Wade, and for banning assault weapons and bunker buster bombs. His only two pro-Bush votes were to fund the Iraq war and support missile defense (duplicating Sen. Hillary Clinton's course on both).

Lieberman's most recent ratings by the American Conservative Union were 7 percent in 2003, zero in 2004 and 8 percent in 2005. "Well deserved!" ACU Chairman David Keene told me. "I don't see why any conservative should be overly concerned about Joe Lieberman's plight."

Lieberman has opposed Bush as the environmentalists' Senate leader on global warming. He rebuffed attempts to compromise Social Security reform. He had a perfect record, seven for seven, backing filibusters that blocked Bush judicial nominees. He voted for cloture on three judicial nominations only after a compromise by the bipartisan Gang of 14 (which included Lieberman). He voted against confirming Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

This record of party regularity has won Lieberman's independent candidacy little backing from party stalwarts. Only four (out of 44) Democratic senators announced post-primary support for him. I could not find backing for Lieberman's independent candidacy from any of my longtime Democratic sources, who never have been associated with the MoveOn.org, neo-McGovernite wing of the party. Primarily because of Iraq, the clock has run out on Lieberman in his party since he was its 2000 nominee for vice president. In his disastrous 2004 campaign for the presidential nomination, he lost badly in eight consecutive state contests (doing no better than 11 percent in Delaware).

For Lieberman to have any chance in November, Connecticut Republican voters will have to reject the party's lackluster nominee (former State Rep. Alan Schlesinger). The only conceivable motivation would be Lieberman's position on Iraq, but even that faded last week. In a desperate Sunday night effort to separate himself from the president, he said "many of the Bush administration's decisions regarding the conduct of the war" were not "right." That did not fit the post-primary profile of courage that subsequently was sketched for him by the Republican high command.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 11:40 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In Lieberman's and my school days, this would be called shedding crocodile tears (defined by Webster's as "a hypocritical show of sorrow").

Not so sure of that. The enemy of my enemy may not necessarily be my friend, but he can be someone I'm willing to do business with when it's mutually beneficial.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 12:11 Comments || Top||

#2  This should be as plan the the cellulite on Hillary's thighs. They continue to play directly into Rove's hand. If they can't figure out that Kos is a Rove plant by now, then their diety Moloch help them.
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 13:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Look at this seriously. Lamont, the antiwar moonbat from Barney and his his Angry Friends, beats Joeblow in primary. Seriously massive fodder for Republican campaigns across America. And in the end, Joe wins anyways. A hurt, betrayed Joe who will now be more prone to vote... right.

Win. Win. Win.

That Rove is seriously the evil mastermind of all time. I bet Kos doesn't even have a clue.
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 14:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Joe's leftwing politics are as sincere as anyones. We won't get him to help on any votes that count. But his career in the Senate is over, even if he wins the general election.
Posted by: Iblis || 08/14/2006 16:29 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Appeals Court Upholds New York Subway Searches
Came down on Friday.
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- An appeals court said New York police can make random searches of passengers' bags and backpacks at subway entrances, upholding a year-old practice.

The searches were instituted July 21, 2005, two weeks after terrorist bombings of London's public transport system killed 52 people. The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the police commissioner and the city on behalf of five New Yorkers, claiming the searches violated their right to privacy. The police argument that the searches are narrowly tailored to prevent or detect attacks was upheld today by the appeals court.

``We agree that the search program serves a special need and, on balance, is reasonable,'' Judge Chester Straub of the in New York federal appeals court wrote for a three-judge panel. The appeals judges' 25-page decision, upheld a trial judge's ruling.

The decision sanctioned searches for the special purpose of preventing attacks rather than gathering evidence in criminal investigations.

``We have no doubt that concealed explosives are a hidden hazard, that the program's purpose is prophylactic, and that the nation's busiest subway system implicates the public's safety,'' Straub wrote.

The court ruled a day after U.K. police said they foiled a plot to blow up aircraft bound for the U.S. That announcement was accompanied by heightened security measures at airports in both countries.

The judges said subway stations and other mass- transportation hubs made attractive targets for terrorists. The court noted that people can refuse to be searched by leaving the subway and that officers limit inspections to bags big enough to carry explosives.

``This critical affirmance will help the NYPD continue to keep the transit system safe, especially in light of ongoing and critical events like the airline threats yesterday,'' Michael A. Cardozo, the city's chief legal counsel, said in an e-mailed statement.

The plaintiffs argued the program was intrusive without being useful against terrorism.
I haven't noticed an NYC subway being blown up lately. But maybe it happened and Rove covered it up...
``It is troubling that the court's opinion fails to closely scrutinize the effectiveness of the program, which has resulted in police searches of hundreds of thousands of innocent New Yorkers and which even the city's own experts admitted leaves the subway system wide open to terrorist attack,'' Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in an e-mailed statement. He said the group is considering its options.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 11:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fianlly, a little horse sense applied to the problem.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 08/14/2006 11:49 Comments || Top||

#2  There's hope!
Posted by: gorb || 08/14/2006 23:09 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Innocent Americans Abroad: Mike Wallace Gives a Foe a Pass
by Jay D. Homnick
Posted Aug 11, 2006

A couple, both aged sixty-five, go to a beach resort to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Sure enough, while laying out their blankets on the sand, they find a lamp which, when rubbed, yields a grateful genie. “I wish,” says the husband. “That my wife were thirty years younger than me.” And the genie, pliant after the manner of his breed, promptly grants the request… and turns the man 95.

The moral of the story is that when one seeks in elder years to adopt a pretense of youth, one is most often made to look more pitiably aged than otherwise. Mike Wallace, famous bulldog interviewer of years past, would have done well to heed this nugget of wisdom. As an eighty-eight year old retiree, he can sit on his somewhat faded laurels without them growing the thorns that render sitting uncomfortable.

Instead, he took the senior citizen bus to Iran to interview President Ahmadinejad. The reasons why it is asinine in the extreme to conduct a serious interview with him are too numerous to enumerate, but let’s just sprinkle a few to garnish our point. One, he is a whack-a-doodle. Two, he probably is a puppet without real power under the imams. Three, to the extent that he has power he is a menace. Four, his regime is currently fighting a proxy war through Hezbollah and it is critically important to avoid conferring legitimacy. Five, he is being told by the UN that if he does not stand down on his nuclear program, he will be forever banned from polite company; some American news agency has no business sending the opposite signal.

As if the act of conducting the interview were not egregious enough, Wallace manages to return from the encounter besotted and smitten by the man’s charm. Why, he is strangely attractive, quoth Mike sagely. Short, yes; gnomish and gnarled like a Dickens frontispiece, certainly; beady-eyed and predatory, undeniably; yet lovable in an indefinable way. The E.T. of genocidal dictators. One can almost envision him making a magnanimous tour of the assembly line that produces rocketry for Hizbollah, whispering gentle words of encouragement into the ear of the young lady jamming just a few extra ball bearings into the warhead.

Mike goes on cooing after the wooing. He is so intelligent, that Ahmad! He has a civil engineering degree! The interview was sincere and not for propaganda purposes! Oy, oy, oy, Mike, Mike, Mike. How could you? How could you become so small, so shallow, so superficial, so naïve, so unworldly, so gullible? And why were you wandering around off the grounds on the night we had your favorite Jello for dinner?

True, this brand of “useful idiocy” is not reserved to superannuated has-beens. Plenty of left-leaning anchors have been coaxed and hoaxed this way in the past. The puff pieces on Lenin and Stalin, even Hitler, are before my time, but I have witnessed it with the likes of Mao, Castro, Brezhnev and Gorbachev. And it would not do to forget Dan Rather’s exclusive chat with Saddam Hussein which featured old Dan looking as proud of himself as a centipede on a tightrope.

Yet it is particularly gruesome to witness the wizened but not wise-ned Wallace wallowing in his witlessness. (Funnily enough, Ahmadinejad mentions at one point that he thought Wallace had retired. We had thought so too, Mr. A, but no such luck.) To see one of our national icons nod thoughtfully when this misbegotten miscreant proves his righteousness by citing President Bush’s low poll numbers is to reach reflexively for the barf bag. When, oh when, will these journalists learn to stop being used as foils by these foul fellows?

One would imagine that especially one who had lived these particular eighty-eight years, in which charismatic figures with all sorts of charm and advanced degrees and phony earnestness had wreaked havoc on the planet, would be less disposed to buy the inch-deep slickster charm of the malevolent President Ahmadinejad, but one would imagine wrong. Liberal blindness to evil is not enlightened even by rays of clearest truth.

The Jewish joke has two elderly women discussing their children’s education. “My son Marty has multiple degrees,” one mom exclaims. “In psychology, economics and politics.” Her companion naturally wonders which field he chose as the basis of his livelihood. “Actually he can’t get a job… but at least he understands why.” Ahmadinejad has his job because he knows how to engineer an impression with a degree of civility. It’s Wallace who has no job anymore and, sadly, does not understand why.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 11:30 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Caribbean-Latin America
What It’s Really Like In Fidel’s Cuba
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 11:28 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Olmert's Sellout
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 11:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Dammit, I feel like converting to Judaism and doing Aliyah just so I can vote... BiBi!
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 14:04 Comments || Top||

#2  It is a moment that will come back to haunt America and the West.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 14:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Evil Elvis,
You dont need to convert etc.
Just make sure that the next US president is a staunch republican.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 15:00 Comments || Top||

#4  The article is written more like the US selling out Israel.

It mentions, in passing, having peace-nics as PM and DM but then blames the US.

HOLD IT! The Israeli electorate were the ones that elected this pair of idiots. Put the blame where the blame is due. It is uncalled for to blame the US and Condi and Bush. He makes me mad enough to want to tell Israel to get lost.

He should be a MAN and TAKE RESPONSIBLITY for HIS SIN of letting those two win.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 15:57 Comments || Top||


Hamas Sees Hizballah 'Victory' As Cause for New Intifada
southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday just as the ceasefire between Israel and the Hizballah terrorist organization was beginning to take hold.

But even before the ceasefire, a Hamas columnist said that Palestinians would be the greatest beneficiaries of what he called the Hizballah victory. He said it paved the way for a third Palestinian uprising.

Writing in the Hamas paper Al-Risala, columnist Ibrahim Abu Heija said that the "Palestinian resistance" [a euphemism for terrorism] would be the "greatest beneficiary" of what he called Hizballah's victory. "This is an important moment that the Palestinian resistance must seize," wrote Abu Heija in the paper, which is published twice weekly and distributed in the Hamas power base of Gaza. Palestinian groups "benefited" from a similar moment six years ago, at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa intifadah, Abu Heija said.

Hizballah congratulated the Lebanese people on their "big victory" over Israel in a leaflet distributed to citizens on Monday. Hizballah claimed victory when Israel withdrew unilaterally from a south Lebanese security zone six years ago, in May 2000 - a move that inspired Palestinians to launch their violent uprising later that year.

More than 1,000 Israelis - many of them civilians - have been killed since then in Palestinian terror attacks.

"And now, after the ceasefire [hudna] has been tried and the experience of changing the [Palestinian] Authority reached its peak, the door will be opened for a third Palestinian intifada, that will transform the resistance from the stage of reaction [to Israeli] actions to [resistance] that is carried out at our initiative," he said, according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute. "In general, it is important for the Palestinian resistance to exploit the effects of the victory in Lebanon for its own interests in order to achieve its rights and move forward towards its objectives, and to encourage the whole public to unite behind its program," he wrote last week.
Posted by: Ebbaing Spinesing5179 || 08/14/2006 11:21 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [18 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hamas sees sunrise as a cause for new intifada.
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 13:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Deport them so they can see the destruction first hand.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 18:58 Comments || Top||

#3  You could nuke these morons and still have them declaring some sort of "victory." Deterence is not an option with psychotics of this type. Only death cannot be misinterpreted as anything but defeat. Let them die, faster please.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:13 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm getting to the point of advocating things that will get Me Sink Trapped™
Posted by: Jackal || 08/14/2006 22:30 Comments || Top||


Reflections on the ceasefire
The bottom line is that the good guys were unable, under the provocation of war, to destroy Hezb’allah. Everything else is just blather.

These “international forces” ignore a critical aspect of a military force – who and for what are soldiers going to die? A policeman does not expect to die during his career. Yes, he MAY die, but it is not his expectation. If the situation is too extreme, the police back off.

The armed forces are the ultimate purveyors of force. No individual soldier expects to die, but the significance of the uniform is that he may be called on at any time to do so in pursuit of the mission. Well, most people are not going to accept that assignment as a matter of course. The IDF had a national mission to defeat Hezb’allah. Whatever the motivation of the international force, it is going to be LESS than that of the IDF. So, the idea that it is going to accomplish something – like disarmament of Hezb’allah – that Israel in full battle mode was unable to do is simply a fantasy.

It is hard to understand why Condi participated in this kabuki. Presumably, Washington had the same collapse in confidence in Israel that a lot of us have had. It must be something like that – that this is as good as we can get. This is a Band-Aid on this situation. It will depend entirely on how exhausted Hizbullah is. But Iran will see it for what it is – a retreat, a weakening of the will, a historic turning point, a disaster for the good guys.

The problem with Lebanon in the modern world is what Bernard Lewis has observed – the Muslim/Arab culture is not built around nation states, but rather around religious sects. Lebanon does not exist so much as it is a collection of Maronites, Druze, Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, etc. Hizbullah, the avatar of the Shia, is now in ascendance. It is pointless to expect that the “government of Lebanon” is a force separate from the strongest group, which is currently Hizbullah. So to have the “army of Lebanon” disarm Hizbullah is a form of words that means nothing – it has no content. The fact that we and the Israelis would accept such an empty form shows our weakness. And the other side will not miss that.

Of course, there is always hope. Perhaps the lion will lie down with the lamb. But I doubt it.

Israel was caught completely off guard. Obviously, they had no useful intelligence on the dispositions and order of battle of Hizbullah even though the threat had been building for six years. And they had no tactical plan as to how to attack Hizbullah in its current form – which is why we have been seeing such high casualties. Everybody above the rank of lieutenant colonel should be fired and EVERYBODY in the responsible intelligence agency should be fired. They should all consider themselves lucky not to be shot.

Start over. The dividend for losing a war has traditionally been what you learn from it. That is the ONLY dividend Israel can get out of this disaster.
Posted by: Ebbaing Spinesing5179 || 08/14/2006 11:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Ned Lamont is Howard Dean 2.0
by Jim Geraghty, National Review

Ned Lamont is going to be huge this fall.

I don't mean huge in terms of poll numbers, I mean huge in terms of the number of times he's cited by Republicans and conservatives as a reason why voters shouldn't trust Democrats on National Security.

Charles Krauthammer:

Lamont said in his victory speech that the time had come to "fix George Bush's failed foreign policy." Yet, as Martin Peretz pointed out in the Wall Street Journal, on Iran, the looming long-term Islamist threat, Lamont's views are risible. Lamont's alternative to the Bush Iran policy is to "bring in allies" and "use carrots as well as sticks."

Where has this man been? Negotiators with Iran have had carrots coming out of their ears in three years of fruitless negotiations. Allies? We let the British, French and Germans negotiate with Iran for those three years, only to have Iran brazenly begin accelerated uranium enrichment that continues to this day.

Lamont seems to think that we should just sit down with the Iranians and show them why going nuclear is not a good idea. This recalls Sen. William Borah's immortal reaction in September 1939 upon hearing that Hitler had invaded Poland to start World War II: "Lord, if I could only have talked with Hitler, all this might have been avoided."

Lamont, on Fox News Sunday:

LAMONT: No, I think on the contrary. What this election showed is that a lot of people in Connecticut think that the invasion of Iraq has nothing to do with our war on terror. It's been a terrible distraction.

Here you are talking about the failed terrorist plot today. It originated in Pakistan, goes through London, and here we have 132,000 of our bravest troops stuck in the middle of a civil war in Iraq.

Ahem. From the London Times:

The investigation into the suspected Al-Qaeda leader in Britain and his UK associates was considered by Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5’s director-general, to be the security service’s single most important line of inquiry. He is suspected of being behind two “pipelines” which saw potential terrorist recruits being sent for training at camps in Pakistan and to join the “holy war” in Iraq.

The Al-Qaeda leader — who cannot be named for legal reasons— acts as a suspected hub in a network of extremist groups. These include Kashmiri and north African groups based in this country. He is linked to a second suspect also in Britain who has “played a major role in facilitating support for the Iraq jihad”.

A third associate is an Iraqi who came to Britain in 2004 and worked on providing support for British extremists who wanted to travel to Iraq to fight the “holy war”.

MI5 said he acquired weapons in preparation for an unspecified attack in Britain. He was detained in January last year pending deportation to Iraq.

"Iraq has nothing to do with the war on terror", other than the fact that the head of al-Qaeda in London and his henchmen are sending recruits to Iraq. But U.S. forces should not hunt al-Qaeda in Iraq, because ... because ... well ... oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame.

More from Lamont on Fox News Sunday:

We also are much stronger when we work in concert with our allies, when we have shared intelligence. And I think that we've taken our eye off the ball there a little bit, and I think it's time to focus.

Okay, Mr. Lamont. Let’s hear it. How has the U.S. government “taken its eye off the ball” in intelligence-sharing? And how would you, as Senator, ensure the requisite focus?

How, exactly, can he argue that "we’ve taken our eye off the ball in sharing intelligence" three days after U.K., U.S., and Pakistani authorities worked together to take down a terror cell allegedly days away from launching an attack that could have killed more than 9/11?

How can Lamont argue that the U.S. should "work with allies" on Iran when most Democrats are arguing that the Bush administration ought to sit down and negotiate directly with Ahmedinijad? He's not even in line with the rest of his party's criticisms...
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 11:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  How, exactly, can he argue that "we’ve taken our eye off the ball in sharing intelligence" three days after U.K., U.S., and Pakistani authorities worked together to take down a terror cell allegedly days away from launching an attack that could have killed more than 9/11?

Because he's a Democrat. Nobody-- and I mean NOBODY-- expects Democrats to make a lick of sense anymore.

Like the Muslim bar for "victory" in battle, the "not a fucking idiot" bar for Democrats is set on the very lowest, bottom notch.

God help us all if the people of Connecticut are dimwitted enough to elect this shitforbrains to the Senate.
Posted by: Dave D. || 08/14/2006 11:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Dave D..."...Bottom Notch"

Bottom notch, hell, they've dug a trench and put the bar at the bottom, AND THEY'RE STILL GOING UNDER IT!
Posted by: AlanC || 08/14/2006 12:46 Comments || Top||

#3  "oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame"

This should be a permanant addition to the Rantburg dictionary.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Well we might have lost a McKinney, but we got a freaking Lamont. w00t!
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 13:48 Comments || Top||

#5  "oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame"

This should be a permanant addition to the Rantburg dictionary

I second that motion!
Posted by: Evil Elvis || 08/14/2006 13:50 Comments || Top||

#6  Like a skipping record, it will drive you insane.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 19:18 Comments || Top||

#7  Well Fred I got a second on that motion. Whadya say? Picture it now:

Q: Well Mr. Dem, what do you think about the price of gas these days?
A: oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame!

Q: Ok, but what about trade with China?
A: oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame!

Q: Seriously, what about embryos for stem cell research? It's creating quite a controversy.
A: oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame!

Q: Ummm...Ok. Last question. What about the rumored engagement of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn?
A: oilyellowcakebushliedpeoplediedwmdsplame!
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#8  We got a Lamont? Oh noooooooooo! Who'll take care of the empire?
Posted by: Fred G || 08/14/2006 19:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Ester, Ester! Put a bag over you head and go check CNN for the results,

because the remote hate you!
Posted by: Fred G || 08/14/2006 19:50 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Sheehan Treated for Dehydration in Texas
Anti-war demonstrator Cindy Sheehan was hospitalized Friday evening for dehydration and exhaustion after fasting for more than a month and protesting earlier this week in 100-degree weather, friends and relatives said. Sheehan was listed in stable condition at Providence Health Center in Waco. Brenda Mauk, a nursing supervisor, declined to release additional information.

Sheehan, 49, was hospitalized after friends picked her up Friday afternoon at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where she arrived after spending several days in Seattle at the Veterans for Peace convention, said friend Tiffany Burns.

Sheehan, who has been on a Jamba Juice and Smoothie liquid diet as part of the nationwide "Troops Home Fast" hunger strike, had been treated and released from a Seattle emergency room Thursday night. On doctors orders, she ate for the first time in about 37 days, Burns said.
And her first solid food is hospital fare!
Sheehan also underwent additional tests for uterine bleeding, her sister Dede Miller said.
Hmmm. Looks like BDS is'nt doing her health much good.
Sheehan was to spend Friday night in the Waco hospital but planned to attend some war protest activities Saturday at the 5-acre lot she bought last month in Crawford, President Bush's adopted hometown, about 20 miles from Waco. "She's in good spirits, but she's sad she can't be at Camp Casey," Burns told The Associated Press.
I call bullshit. She conveniently checks into the hospital for 'dehydration' after chugging every smoothie in sight? She's ordered to eat solid food? Next is a press release telling us how she's sorry but she's under "doctor's orders" to pig out at the Burger King.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:15 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Bush is back in DC, Cindy. Looooooser!
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Which is why It's kinda cool that she's here. BTW, it was 101 yesterday, with a forecasted high today of the same. It's been at or near 100 degrees for a couple of months now. Enjoy Cin, and welcome to Texas. Nuttin' but love for ya.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:35 Comments || Top||

#3  "for dehydration and exhaustion after fasting for more than a month"

Hehehe. Whoever wrote that should have their own show on the Comedy Network!

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 08/14/2006 12:16 Comments || Top||

#4  she's under "doctor's orders" to pig out at the Burger King.

Eat it! No changes! You will have it unser way!
Posted by: Burgher Koenig || 08/14/2006 18:39 Comments || Top||

#5  How does a dried up bitter old prune suffer from dehydration?
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 18:39 Comments || Top||

#6  I wish her a speedy recovery and also hope she finds a clue.
Posted by: DMFD || 08/14/2006 20:06 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Biometric "Hostile Intent" Machine Under Testing at US Airport
At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones.

With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions.

The trial of the Israeli-developed system represents an effort by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to determine whether technology can spot passengers who have "hostile intent." In effect, the screening system attempts to mechanize Israel's vaunted airport-security process by using algorithms, artificial-intelligence software and polygraph principles.

The Israeli-developed system combines questions and biometric measurements to determine if a passenger should undergo screening by security officials.


Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:08 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I've got a better test with much fewer false positives. Drop a quran and see who becomes hostile.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  To date, the TSA has more confidence in people than machines to detect suspicious behavior.

That's because the TSA is a jobs program, not a security program.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 08/14/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  This should be mandatory before marrage. They need to put and angery ex wife filter on it. There are many an ex that would never be allowed on a plane if they could read her anger and intent.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  I would have liked to seen the results if this had been conducted on real passengers in Knoxville. I would imagine it would be hard to score with the responses being only, a.)"None of your g**-d**n business" or b.)"Kiss my Dixie-white a$$".
Posted by: psychohillbilly || 08/14/2006 10:49 Comments || Top||

#5  I hope it's not too dependent on lie-detector technology. They can be beaten pretty reliably if you have been trained how to do it. Since sociopaths (where most terrorists belong IMHO) feel little if anything when they lie, quite a few can slip by, too.

But at least the ACLU is predictable in their zeal to defend a terrorist's right to get on a plane and bomb it without the indignity of racial profiling.
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 11:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Here in Knoxville, we seem to be the one of the guinea pigs for whatever brainstorm-of-the-week the TSA loosers come up with.

It looks to me like an automated polygraph station. And it is probably about as effective.
IMAO, all this box does is give TSA some legal insulation when they start profiling for muslims. Joy.

Oh, well. At least they are trying, in their inept way.
Posted by: N guard || 08/14/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#7  "IMAO, all this box does is give TSA some legal insulation when they start profiling for muslims. Joy."

Yeah, if it stopped there. My bet is they'll inflict it on 85 year old WWII veterans in wheelchairs.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 11:24 Comments || Top||

#8  49 Pan: Most divorced people instantly recognized the line in the movie "Return of the Living Dead":

"But I don't care darling, because I love you, and you've got to let me eat your brains."
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 11:30 Comments || Top||

#9  After flight delays, no AC in the airplane, seats designed to fix 5'6" anorexic victims (not me), expensive beer...shall I go on?...Yer damn farkin' straight I have "Hostile Intent" TM.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/14/2006 13:25 Comments || Top||

#10  If they need to know how well any lie detector works, the Clintons are still available.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 15:23 Comments || Top||

#11  Measuring hostility - at airport waiting lines?

Oh, yeah...
Posted by: mojo || 08/14/2006 15:33 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Jailed anti-Chavez leader escapes
HT to Captain Ed
A senior Venezuelan opposition leader has escaped from a military prison, the country's attorney general has said. Carlos Ortega was sentenced to almost 16 years in jail last year after being convicted of inciting unrest during a strike that began in late 2002.
Opposition leader doing hard time in prison for leading a strike? Sure sounds 'democratic', doesn't it?
He escaped along with three military officers and may have been aided by some authorities, Venezuela's attorney general said.
hmmmm...had military help?
Ortega is known as a fierce opponent of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. In his role as a key union leader, Ortega, 59, played a central role in the 63-day strike that aimed to oust Mr Chavez from the presidency. He was arrested last March after returning to Venezuela from Costa Rica, where he sought asylum after the strike ended.

Attorney General Isias Rodriguez told Venezuelan TV that Ortega had escaped from prison. "Effectively at this moment the people who appear to have escaped are not in the Ramo Verde prison," he said.
That's usually what they mean when they talk about an 'escape'.
He had been jailed at the military prison, some 40km (25 miles) outside Caracas, for his own security, officials said.
Why, Hugo was going to beat him up? Civilians in a military prison, sounds like something a banana socialist state would do.
Ortega's lawyer, Carlos Roa, expressed "surprise" at the news and said he had doubts about the truth of the story, the EFE news agency reported.
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 10:03 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

"Jaaaaaaaaaaaail - break!"
Posted by: Angus Young || 08/14/2006 10:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Jailed anti-Chavez leader escapes

that ought to spin Hugo's sprockets.
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 12:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Suggests two possibilities:

1)There are anti-Chavez sympathizers in the prison system or;

2) They guy has been disappeared behind a cloak of deniability. He could be "on the run" forever.
Posted by: Baba Tutu || 08/14/2006 12:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Viva Ortega!
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 12:59 Comments || Top||


Good Morning!


I tried to put in the links today. Hope they work! (Fingers crossed).
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/14/2006 10:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  no more wire hangers!
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 10:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Sees shadow. Six more weeks of summer predicted.

Heh(TM). Punxsutawey Kim!
Posted by: Jonathan || 08/14/2006 10:10 Comments || Top||

#3  "When you polish the floor you have to move the tree. If you can't do something right don't do it at all!"

Yes, Mistress.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:25 Comments || Top||

#4  Scooter, you're pretty darned good at this. Thanks!
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 10:58 Comments || Top||

#5  Scooter----Great work! Now Fred does not have to fret about this facet of the daily RB weblog. He can concentrate on the fisching, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/14/2006 11:46 Comments || Top||

#6  US gives Jordan $247,000,000
thanks for Jizya suckers

we want autographs Scooter!

»:-)
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 12:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Dang. Just... DANG! Scooter, you are without peer.
Posted by: Dave D. || 08/14/2006 12:17 Comments || Top||

#8  I think you missed an obvious Bette Davis-Kim Jong Il segue there, Scooter.

"Whatever Happened to Baby Kim?" would've neatly reunited the theme of has-beens with nice legs.

Cheers,
Victoria
Posted by: Victoria || 08/14/2006 12:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Christina!!! Bring me the ax!!!
Posted by: ST || 08/14/2006 12:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Yes Joan, make mine a Pepsi Please.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 12:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Believe it or not, I used to work for the Asia Times back when it was a real newspaper - before going on-line only. Of course, they never let me write headlines like these....
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/14/2006 13:16 Comments || Top||

#12 
Believe it or not, I used to work for the Asia Times back when it was a real newspaper - before going on-line only. Of course, they never let me write headlines like these....


that explains it all then Scooter, nothing like expierence..come to think of it you may actually outrank Fred most of us.

/i didnt say that.... >::
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 13:23 Comments || Top||

#13  I used to work for the Asia Times
I see the work of Mergenthaler Linotype Compugraphic whiz. Bleed PMS 185?
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 17:11 Comments || Top||

#14  You know it, 6!
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/14/2006 20:14 Comments || Top||

#15  :>
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 20:50 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Analysis: Government and IDF wracked by unprecedented leadership crisis.
In a state as vulnerable as Israel is, this kind of discord between civilians and military is a disaster.
Relations between the country's political and military leadership are at the lowest point in the country's history, on the verge of a crisis. In addition, there is a growing lack of confidence between Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, the first CoS to hail from the air force, and many of his general staff colleagues from the ground forces, who say he and his "blue clique" [blue being the color of the air force uniform-ed] do not fully appreciate the nature of ground warfare.
Here's an interesting aside about the planning by the IDF for the Lebanon operation.
Senior IDF officers have been saying that the PM bears sole responsibility for the current unfavorable military situation, with Hezbollah still holding out after almost a month of fighting. According to these officers, Olmert was presented with an assiduously prepared and detailed operational plan for the defeat and destruction of Hezbollah within 10-14 days, which the IDF has been formulating for the past 2-3 years.

This plan was supposed to have begun with a surprise air onslaught against the Hezbollah high command in Beirut, before they would have had time to relocate to their underground bunkers. This was to have been followed immediately by large scale airborne and seaborne landing operations, in order to get several divisions on the Litani River line, enabling them to outflank Hezbollah's "Maginot line" in southern Lebanon. This would have surprised Hezbollah, which would have had to come out of its fortifications and confront the IDF in the open, in order to avoid being isolated, hunted down and eventually starved into a humiliating submission.
According to senior military sources, who have been extensively quoted in both the Hebrew media and online publications with close ties to the country's defense establishment, Olmert nixed the second half of the plan, and authorized only air strikes on southern Lebanon, not initially on Beirut.

Although the Premier has yet to admit his decision, let alone provide a satisfactory explanation, it seems that he hoped futilely for a limited war. A prominent wheeler-dealer attorney-negotiator prior to entering politics, he may have thought that he could succeed by the military option of filing a lawsuit as a negotiating ploy, very useful when you represent the rich and powerful, as he always had. Another motive may have been his desire to limit the economic damage by projecting a limited rather than total war to the international financial powers that be.
Read the whole thing, which is immensely depressing. This clown Olmert has tossed away strategic surprise for Israel, and the next time it's going to be much, much harder.
Posted by: Omavising Threater1218 || 08/14/2006 10:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Par for the course in much liberal civilian leadership.
Posted by: DarthVader || 08/14/2006 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  This is what would have played out if Igor had been Prez on 9/11. The Taliban and Al Qaeda would still be in power in Afghanistan and god only knows what more terrorist acts would have been directly carried out against Americans in their homeland while we all awaited the next non-event at the UN.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't see this as a crisis. Israelis know they've been hosed and will find good leadership. Their lives depend upon it.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  I recognize that plan from someplace a few weeks back...


All that aside, if we can come up with it here on the Burg, Israel has no excuses, but only blame to apportion. If Olmert were given this plan and an army ready to execute it, and he then turned it down for the piece-meal crap he put into operation, then Olmert deserves to be bundled up and dropped into the middle of Teheran. He deserves to stay with them more than with the nation he is supposed to, but faield to, defend well.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#5  They needed and need a national coalition.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:21 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm wondering if Olmert and the IDF strategy is to let the Hezbugs filter back in, let the kak begin again.... then hit them on the rebound.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 19:26 Comments || Top||

#7  I hope to God so, Besoeker. The alternative is that they haven't any plan, and then we have to pray that Bibi gets elected really, really soon.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 19:36 Comments || Top||

#8  It seems that Olmert didn't want a victory.

Olmert loves defeat: so, Israelis, make him happy, defeat him in the next elections.
Posted by: leroidavid || 08/14/2006 19:43 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
California to make it easier to drive without license
California lawmakers are working on a plan that would cut the penalty for some of the people who drive without licenses, giving a huge break to those who just don't want to bother with all that nuisance of getting one.

The state Senate has voted 25-14 to endorse a plan that would reduce a required 30-day impoundment of vehicles to 24-hours – if the drivers never bothered to get a license.

The old law required that 30-day parking plan for the vehicles of drivers caught without licenses, whether they never had one or their licenses were forfeited or suspended. The new plan keeps that 30-day penalty if a driver's license is suspended or forfeited, but cuts it to 24 hours for those who didn't bother with the system in the first place.

"Break federal immigration law, then break California law by driving without a license, and Sacramento wants you to get your car back the next day so that you can continue driving without a license – and probably without insurance, because you need a license to qualify for it," Saunders wrote. "It's' almost as if the Legislature is telling illegal immigrants that the state expects them to drive without a license." State Sen. Chuck Poochigian, R-Fresno, noted it actually penalizes those who try to comply with state law.

Sen. Nell Soto, D-Pomona, described the bill as making it "fairer" because it would stop the "excessive penalties" against those "unable to obtain drivers licenses."
Excellent idea. Let's apply it to CCWs, too.
John Whitney, a member of the Christian group One LA, said that his organization has worked for the plan because as a "conservative Christian evangelical," he wanted to see special treatment for those who cannot get licenses because they are not legal residents."
And who might that be?
Posted by: Jackal || 08/14/2006 09:43 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "John Whitney, a member of the Christian group One LA, said that his organization has worked for the plan because as a "conservative Christian evangelical," he wanted to see special treatment for those who cannot get licenses because they are not legal residents."

I have absolutely no idea what this means.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Why not. They already drive without insurance.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  There's probably a fee associated with the retrieval of the vehicle. By shortening the stay they can increase the frequency and thus increase the revenue.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/14/2006 10:52 Comments || Top||

#4  Backsliding.
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 10:53 Comments || Top||

#5 
I have absolutely no idea what this means.

It means he wanted non-citizens to have more rights than citizens.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 08/14/2006 11:47 Comments || Top||

#6  Well, yeah, that's the effect. But I don't understand why a "conservative Christian evangelical" would say it.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#7  Because it lets him sow divisiveness by pretending for the cameras to be a conservative. It also helps give the "centrists" cover if even the "conservatives" are for this plan.
Posted by: Abdominal Snowman || 08/14/2006 12:19 Comments || Top||

#8  Just match this plan with a revision to law that stipulates that unlicensed and uninsured motorists can't sue for damages [cause they weren't suppose to be on the road in the first place]. Cuts them and their lawyers off at the scrotum.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 12:47 Comments || Top||

#9  mcsegeek: I imagine, at least with the use of the quotes, that if you research that group, they're probably not "conservative Christians" at all, but a leftist-quasi-religious group. True conservative Christians wouldn't get involved with this, but would be more worried about "reaching" the illegals with the Words of Christ (not trying to get them off the hook for driving w/o a license). "Render unto Cesar what is Cesar's." I'd guess that group wants everything to be "fair" and "feel good," not actually laying out ground rules, only to change them later.
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 13:24 Comments || Top||

#10  Well I'm also in doubt he's a 'conservative Christian evangelical', BA. Being one myself and hanging around with many others, I believe there is a consensus among us that 1) Illegal Immigration must be stopped by the government, because it's their responsibility to provide a secure border in a sovereign state; and 2) Christians should have compassion on their fellow man, to the extent that if they find a man that needs clothes, clothe him; if they find a thirsty person, give him something to drink, etc, and 3) Harboring or facilitating illegal activities under the guise of being a good Christian is a violation of scripture, i.e., the 'render unto Caesar' passage you refer to. I've never heard among Bible believers even the hint of wanting 'special treatment' for illegals; thus the incredulity of my previous comments.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 13:45 Comments || Top||

#11  The state Senate has voted 25-14 to endorse a plan that would reduce a required 30-day impoundment of vehicles to 24-hours – if the drivers never bothered to get a license.

Will they be re-impounded when the same unlicensed driver shows up to pick up his car?

Sounds like time for another Voters Initiative if this turkey is enacted.
Posted by: SLO Jim || 08/14/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||

#12  What's next? Reducing the sentence for Rape, Robbery, and Murder to weeks instead of years for those who 'might feel disenfrancised' because they weren't legal residents -- or were simply following their religious tradition of killing jews and infidels?

(oops... I hope nobody on the CA legislature is reading this - they might get ideas....)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 14:32 Comments || Top||

#13  So what happens when one of these folks runs a stop sign unlicensed and uninsured and takes out some soccer mom and her brood? Do the survivors sue Nelly Soto or John Whitney? Cuz you know Chico's not gonna cover it...
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 15:11 Comments || Top||

#14  I hate my state.
Posted by: Iblis || 08/14/2006 16:30 Comments || Top||

#15 
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Please correct the condition that applies and try again. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap. Further violations may result in
banning.

Try again without the racism, pal.
Posted by: FUCK YOU CALI || 08/14/2006 16:47 Comments || Top||

#16  Cleanup on Aisle 15, please.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#17  Still, He's got a point.
#13 I've been asking that question right along.
Posted by: j. D. Lux || 08/14/2006 17:05 Comments || Top||

#18  He's got a point about the non-licensed drivers,, J.D. (Damned little with a DUI himself, though.)

He needn't be quite so rude about it, though; that definitely won't help his cause.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 17:10 Comments || Top||

#19  why in the hell can't i have a license for 1 DUI but every goddamn wetback in north america can drive and no one gives a shit?
Posted by: FUCK YOU CALI || 08/14/2006 16:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq
US, Iraqis Comb Al-Doura 'hood
Iraqi and Coalition forces are systematically combing through businesses and homes in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Doura as part of a continuing operation to stem the tide not swelling, or surging or anything else. MNF press release. of violence plaguing the capital’s 6 million residents, U.S. and Iraqi commanders said Thursday.

Iraqi security forces and Soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division have been conducting Operation Together Forward, a combined Iraqi –U.S. operation focused on areas of the city at risk for violence, said Col. Michael Beech, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

Beech said more than 5,000 Soldiers have been conducting focused operations in mahalas, or city districts, of the Al-Doura area. He said every home and business within the targeted mahalas is being searched. “The purpose of our operations is to significantly and radically reduce the amount of murders, kidnappings, assassinations and sectarian violence,” Beech said.

Brig. Gen. Obd al-Karim, commander of the 6th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Division, said the operation has both military and political components. “As for the political part, we went out of our way to actually meet with the imams and religious leaders. We also met with the district advisory council of the Rasheed district. Our main goals are to re-establish security in this (Al-Doura) area. The second goal is to provide essential services to the residents. The third goal is to stop migration of residents and bring back those who have been forced out of their homes,” al-Karim said.

Al-Karim listed weapons, explosives and stolen vehicles seized in the operation thus far and said 38 suspected insurgents, including three foreign fighters, have been detained. He said an improvised explosive device facility was also discovered.

The Iraqi commander said he has spoken with residents of the neighborhood throughout the operation. “Most are comfortable and actually very glad of the operations and security we are providing in the area,” he said.

Beech said the Al-Doura sweep is only a part of the operation to quell the violence in the city. “What we’re doing here in (Al) Doura is one small piece of a much larger and broader operation that’s going on across Baghdad,” Beech said.


Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 09:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Yet it was from this neighborhood that missiles were launched yesterday. Guess they need a finer-toothed comb - maybe one of those nit combs that come with the de-lousing shampoos.
Posted by: Department of Homeland Security || 08/14/2006 10:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Or perhaps the bad guys were shooting them off before they were taken away.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 15:25 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
"Ceasefire" incidents continue
In second post-ceasefire incident, Israeli troops kill one of a group of armed Hizballah fighters at Banduriya in the central sector of South Lebanon at 1400 hours. Two hours earlier, they shot dead a Hizballah fighter who approached “in a threatening way” in Hadata village in west. Northern Israelis started coming out of bomb shelters after 33 days, South Lebanese cars clog roads heading south from Beirut Monday morning. Unexploded ordinance is a danger on both sides of the border.

At exactly 0800 local time, Israel ordered its ground, air, artillery and naval forces to hold their fire while standing ready for self-defense. Their orders are to hold their fire unless a “hazard is identified.” This is not precisely defined. Hizballah has not announced its acceptance of the ceasefire.

Officers of the IDF northern command fear the flow of returning displaced Lebanese who are circling round bombed roads and bridges to reach their homes in the south will be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire and reinforce its depleted South Lebanese forces.
Of course they will
Half a million Israelis who fled Hizballah attacks are advised to take no chances and wait for one quiet day to pass without rockets before returning. They will find their homes, towns, villages and farms in ruins.

DEBKAfile reports: Lebanon’s Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berri has asked for 48 hours to try and persuade Hassan Nasrallah to accept a new proposal for Hizballah forces to remain in the south with their arms, attached as an auxiliary force to the Lebanese army units deployed south of the Litani River. Sunday, Nasrallah backtracked on its conditional commitment to the UN resolution's ceasefire. Meanwhile the Israeli troops inside Lebanon will hold to their positions until the 15,000 UN troops to boost UNIFIL and the Lebanese army take over.

Minutes before the ceasefire, two bomb trucks were identified and destroyed on their way to Israeli town of Metula on the Lebanese side of the border. S. Beirut was bombed all night up to the last minute as was Baalbek. A record 250 rockets fired Sunday killed one elderly man and injured 19 in several Galilee towns. Five Israeli soldiers died in combat Sunday. In the five weeks of this round of war, Israel suffered 166 dead - 114 servicemen and 52 civilians. Thousands were injured. More than 4,000 Hizballah rockets were launched against northern Israel. Israel reports up to 500 Hizballah fighters and commanders killed in the five-week war.
Posted by: Steve || 08/14/2006 08:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israeli troops kill one of a group of armed Hizballah fighters at Banduriya in the central sector of South Lebanon at 1400 hours. Two hours earlier, they shot dead a Hizballah fighter who approached “in a threatening way” in Hadata village in west.

Now that's my kind of cease-fire.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Berri was really saying to deploy the Lebanese army as an auxiliary (and supply depot) of Hizb'allah. Quit pretending and remove all the muslims south of the Litani.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:22 Comments || Top||

#3  114 servicemen dead is equivalent to 6450 US dead. 5.3 mil Jewish Israeli vs 300 mil US population.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#4  The monkey seems to be having some trouble getting it's hand back out of the bottle, eh?
Posted by: mojo || 08/14/2006 10:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Ceasefire: "The small interval of time between successfully sending a hezzie to meet his virgins and targeting another."
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Tehran: Hezbos Took a Beating

If you believe debka of course ...
Posted by: Legolas || 08/14/2006 12:20 Comments || Top||

#7  If you believe debka of course

Considering that Debka hate Olmert...
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#8  I've always thought the debka folks were somewhere at the right of Genghis Khan, which is one of the reasons I enjoy reading them.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 14:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Debka is like Ernst Junger writing a warblog. :))
Posted by: borgboy || 08/14/2006 14:55 Comments || Top||

#10  Borgboy,
who the f**k is Ernst Junger ?
Excuse my ignorance.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#11  Sounds plausible that the IDF could have taken out many of the long range launchers. The IDF owns the skies and the Israeli's have outstanding sensor technology. They probably have pretty good intel on the ground too.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 08/14/2006 15:46 Comments || Top||

#12  DEBKAfile: Hizballah is filtering reinforcements into South Lebanon among returning refugees. They are taking up positions in the still undamaged bunkers and fortified civilian dwellings

August 15, 2006, 12:01 AM (GMT+02:00)

Therefore, although the rockets and guns were silent up to Monday night and thousands of displaced people in Israel and Lebanon headed for their ravaged homes, DEBKAfile’s military sources report trepidation about the durability of the ceasefire. The tense calm was marred only by three incidents in which Israeli troops shot Hizballah fighters making threatening approaches after Israel ordered its ground, air, artillery and naval forces to hold their fire at 0800 Monday Aug. 14 – unless threatened.

Northern Israelis came out of their bomb shelters after 33 days, South Lebanese cars clogged roads heading south from Beirut Monday morning. Both met scenes of destruction. After night fell, Hizballah staged victory celebrations in Beirut, while its leader, Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed a “historic and strategic victory” over Israel.

The IDF’s northern command watching the thousands of displaced Lebanese flocking to their homes feared they would be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire for reinforcing its depleted South Lebanese forces.

By afternoon, their fears were realized: cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment were clearly visible heading south. Israeli troops were not authorized to stop them. DEBKAfile quotes a senior military source as saying that Hizballah is making a mockery of the ceasefire which Israel honored. “The situation is dangerous,” he said, Most of Hizballah’s fortifications, including its bunker network in the south, were not destroyed as reported. Fresh Hizballah strength is now heading back to man those war stations anew.

Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berrir asked for 48 hours to persuade Hassan Nasrallah to accept a new proposal for Hizballah forces to remain in the south with their arms as an auxiliary force attached to the Lebanese army units to be deployed south of the Litani River.

Israeli troops inside Lebanon will hold their positions until a strengthened international force and the Lebanese army are able to take over.
Posted by: Legolas || 08/14/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#13  Hizballah has not announced its acceptance of the ceasefire.

Then why in blue blazes has there been any sort of ceasefire? If the principal antagonist in this conflict refuses to sign on then there should be no respite. This is ridiculous.

For many decades now, Israel has been held to a higher standard of morality than her foes. It's time to impose honest double-entry bookkeeping upon the terrorists. If they do not want to act honorably, then they need to be disregarded entirely in terms of having access to the usual mechanisms of negotiation or truce.

Islam's facade as the religion of peace [spit!] is finally becoming dislodged and it is up to all self-respecting nations to rip the mask from these perfidous and conniving b@stards for once and all. Iran and Syria muct be caused to face serious consequences for their collusion in this current conflict or else there can be no talk whatsoever of actually fighting any Global War on Terrorism.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:01 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Salafite Groups Step Up Violence
Algiers, 14 August (AKI) - The Salafite Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) has stepped up attacks in Algeria in recent days ahead of the 31 August deadline for a government amnesty for Islamic militants who want to hand themselves in and who have not been involved in bloody attacks.
We'll take that as a "no".
Islamic militants on Saturday exploded five bombs against a military patrol in Maazula, and four bombs went off earlier at al-Qadiriya 80 km west of Algiers. Both attacks were in areas where the government had deployed large numbers of troops ahead of an expected offensive against the Islamic terror groups who have sought refuge in the mountains.

While the al-Qaeda linked GSPC, which has rejected the amnesty offer outright, has stepped up its attacks as the deadline draws near, the government is reportedly preparing an unprecedented offensive against Islamic militants. Algerian government sources contacted by the Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat referred to the "last quarter hour for terrorist groups" and a massive offensive in September against the refuges of Islamic militants in mountain areas where an estimated 300 hard line combattents are holed up, unwilling to give up their armed struggle against the Algerian institutions.

Algerian Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni announced at the end of June that 200 Islamic militants had turned themselves in under an amnesty approved in February to end years of violence following the country's civil war. The authorities had identified up to 800 militants who could benefit from the amnesty regulations.

The amnesty, which expires on 31 August, was part of reconciliation measures to finally end years of a civil war in which estimated 200,000 people have died. It gives Islamic militants six months to surrender and receive a pardon provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes or bombings. The authorities have freed 2,200 jailed militants under the deal which also provides compensation for victims of the violence. The civil war broke out in 1992 when authorities canceled a parliamentary election that radical Islamists were slated to win.
Posted by: Steve || 08/14/2006 08:10 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope we've got a couple of Special Forces guys helping them organize that offensive.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 12:10 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Steyn: Pan-Islamism challenges idea of nation state
Here's how an early report by Reuters covered the massive terrorism bust in the United Kingdom. They started out conventionally enough just chugging along with airport closures, arrest details and quotes from bystanders, but then got to the big picture:

" 'I'm an ex-flight attendant, I'm used to delays, but this is a different kind of delay,' said Gita Saintangelo, 54, an American returning to Miami. 'We heard about it on the TV this morning. We left a little early and said a prayer,' she said at Heathrow.

"Britain has been criticised by Islamist militants for its military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair has also come under fire at home and abroad for following the U.S. lead and refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas."

Is there a software program at Western news agencies that automatically inserts random segues in terrorism stories? The plot to commit mass murder by seizing up to 10 U.K.-U.S. airliners was well advanced long before the first Israeli strike against Hezbollah. Yet it's apparently axiomatic at Reuters, the BBC and many other British media outlets that Tony Blair is the root cause of jihad. He doesn't even have to invade anywhere anymore. He just has to "refuse to call for an immediate cease-fire" when some other fellows invade some other fellows over on the other side of the world.

Grant for the sake of argument that these reports are true -- that when the bloodthirsty Zionist warmongers attack all those marvelous Hezbollah social outreach programs it drives British subjects born and bred to plot mass murder against their fellow Britons. What does that mean?

Here's a clue, from a recent Pew poll that asked: What do you consider yourself first? A citizen of your country or a Muslim? In the United Kingdom, 7 percent of Muslims consider themselves British first, 81 percent consider themselves Muslim first.
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 07:59 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A good friend of mine (ethnic Chinese) resigned from Rooters declaring they were a 'bunch of old school tie racists'.

My friend is probably the most level headed person I know.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 9:01 Comments || Top||

#2  The Chinese and Ties never could get along.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh, ed. *shudder*
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 12:42 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Jumping on the Bandwagon - Rantings o' the Sandmonkey
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/14/2006 07:51 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks, Mr. Monkey for stripping away the nuance for us.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 8:05 Comments || Top||

#2  I have faith in you, especially after all the victories you have achieved, like having the israeli army inside of Lebanon again, right where you want them of course, and having your neighborhood in Beirut destroyed, which saved you all the demolition costs it would've cost you for the Hezbollah Paradise Towers project, which will provide every shia family with a luxury High-rise apartment in a premium Bierut location. It was a fantastic business decision I must say. Die with envy Christians and sunnis. You didn't think of that, did ya?

Now fijord man has gone, Sandmonkey may well be the BEST blogger out there. Read and realize this guy is GOOD.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 8:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Now THAT's a rant. I haven't seen anything that good since flyover's debut. Well said, sandmonkey! (Yeah, I know, it's Mr. Sandmonkey to me...)
Posted by: mac || 08/14/2006 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  We LOOOOVE Sandmonkey!!
Posted by: newc || 08/14/2006 21:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
All missing Egyptian students in custody
The last two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up at their college program were apprehended Sunday in Richmond, Va., customs officials said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Mohamed Saleh Ahmed Maray, 20, and Mohamed Ibrahim Fouaad El Shenawy, 17, at an apartment building in Richmond on Sunday night. Virginia State Police and the Richmond Police helped locate the students.

Last Wednesday, one of the Egyptian students was arrested in Minneapolis and two were detained in Manville, N.J. On Thursday, two were arrested in Dundalk, Md., and one was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Three more were arrested Friday in Des Moines, Iowa.

The students were to attend a monthlong program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. A group of 17 students arrived in New York on July 29. Six reported to Bozeman on time.

After Montana State repeatedly tried to contact the missing students, it notified Homeland Security Department officials and registered the Egyptians as no-shows in a system to track foreign students developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

None of the students is considered a terrorism risk

Not now - ship em outta here. What great efforts to deny the possibility they were up to no good...call it what it is, ya PC jerks
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 07:49 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  probally just needed "Mapquest"
Posted by: plainslow || 08/14/2006 8:34 Comments || Top||

#2  The god of the LLL, PC, is aiding the enemy and literally killing us. What stupidity and foolishness.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Has ANYONE gotten around to finding out WHY they didn't report to the colleges? I've not seen one word about it in the news for any of these students.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:10 Comments || Top||

#4  Several of the people they stayed with said the students were hoping to find jobs and stay here. it's possible that really is all there is to it.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 9:22 Comments || Top||

#5  Did they have work visas?
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||

#6  Who needs a work visa? Just get yourself some fake documents for your employer to put in the file and you're good to go.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 9:32 Comments || Top||

#7  IIUC correctly they didn't. They possibly figured that here, as in Egypt, there's the official reality and the actual reality.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Bobby-are you saying that students coming to the US on student visas are free to work in the US? I understand your point about false documents, but even if they had them on file, it wouldn't change their visa category.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:38 Comments || Top||

#9  They work, but under the table. We had a engineering student do a co-op with our company a few years back. He was working in a motel on the side during eves and weekends.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/14/2006 9:47 Comments || Top||

#10  Goes to show that we need to shake up the way we allow non-nationals to work in the US. Massive penalties for employers who hire them "under the table? A mandatory national database check to clear such workers? Is that too heavy-handed or unfeasible an attempt to try to block potential jihadis from entering the US? What do you all think?
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:53 Comments || Top||

#11  Why would they need work visas? It is well-known that the United States does not enforce its own immigration laws.
Posted by: gromky || 08/14/2006 10:16 Comments || Top||

#12  I had once figured that the system needs to take a name, a birthdate and a social security number as proferred by the prospective employee. The system would spit out MATCH or NO MATCH, figuring that at least a valid SSN that belonged, say, to an anchor baby wouldn't be useful.

Unfortunately, there was this story showing how the Social Security Administration has been issuing SSNs to those unable to work under the category of "non-working". Of course if the card isn't shown to the employer, how would he know whether it is the Working or Non Working type?

I suppose the proposed match/non-match system needs to change to "can work" or "can't work" (for a variety of possible reasons, which the system probably wouldn't be able to tell... 'because of the privacy').
Posted by: eLarson || 08/14/2006 10:20 Comments || Top||

#13  ELarson, I came up with an alternative scheme that would leverage the existing Mastercard/Visa software/hardware infrastructure.

The Employer takes individual's ZIP code of residence and their SSN, phones in to an 800 number associated with the government, and punches in the 5 digit zip code and the SSN, and his own SSN (if an individual) or the IRS assigned employer id. The two numbers are combined, stretched to 16 digits, and sent to the computers along with the area code of the caller. If the computer locates the ZIP+SSN, it's a valid ZIP+SSN, because the IRS/SSA would enter the combination into the database when the individual registers or files a tax return. The computer then extracts the ZIP code, compares it with the employers zip code as found in the IRS database using the employer id, and determines if the zip code is within 75 miles of the caller's zip-code (This allows for a long commute). If so, it's a PASS, AND the SSN is temporarily added to the employer's prospective employee data base. He then has a week to send in the paperwork if he hires.

For individuals, they type in their SSN, and the person is assigned to them temporarily.

There may be some loopholes in this system, but the advantage is that the government can create a system by replicating the existing Mastercard system and tweaking the code and database contents. Extra checks and penalties can be incrementally added on later, but the first cut ought to uncover the first 90% of scofflaws.

Meh. The Govt. would then probably still do NOTHING, but now because there would be too many leads...
Posted by: Ptah || 08/14/2006 10:57 Comments || Top||

#14  No. What I'm saying is that one of our construction sites was raided by INS a few weeks ago. 50 were questioned, 40 released, 10 deported. I can assure you that the 10 deported had the correct documentation, and that it was on file in the office.

So blaming the "employers" for the immigration problem overlooks the trade in fake ID's.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#15  Final Score : FBI-11, Egyptian Students-0

Box Score:
Posted by: BigEd || 08/14/2006 11:17 Comments || Top||

#16  Bobby-they may have had the correct documentation, but the socials would not have cross checked, right?
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 11:18 Comments || Top||

#17  Mrs. Bobby works with high school students from all over the country during the school year for a week in DC. Her favorites are the former-Soviet-Union kids and the Moslem kids (exhange students).

(As an aside, her family had several Japanese exchange students while she was growing up, yet her Father has never forgiven the Japanese for Pearl Harbor. I need to ask him about that apparent incogruity.)

First, they are all very bright and eager to learn. They know more about America than many of the American kids! (who are not all bright and eager - surprise, surprise!)

Second, when they go back after a year in an American high school, they almost all say their perception of the US has changed. Hard to imagine it got worse while they were here, isn't it? Many plan to stay in touch with their host families. (Sadly, almost none admitted their perception of Israel changed.)

Third - some of the kids maintain some contact with their week-long DC "teachers" (and maybe others)and participated in the recent "Orange Revolution" in the Ukraine.

They see democracy at work in the US for a year, then the week of workshops, seminars, and tours in DC sort of drives it home. I met some at their going-away banquet last May, and they were very excited about going home and delighted with what Mrs. Bobby had taught them in a week.

One of the basic principles of the exchange program is that "It's harder to hate someone you know". Maybe if I knew certain MA and CA Senators better.....
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#18  I donno, Jules. I believe my employer scrupously follows the requirements. We did have one guy who came back after the job was completed with a problem that was traced to letting someone use his Social Security card!

C'mon, amigo; I'll bring it right back!
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 11:27 Comments || Top||

#19  Several of the people they stayed with said the students were hoping to find jobs and stay here. it's possible that really is all there is to it.
We could of gave them a job right theree in Eqypt. Infiltrate Al Queda, and give us info. Be able to pay you better than you'd get just working here.
Besides, if that's all theree is, go through Mexico, like everyone else.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/14/2006 12:13 Comments || Top||

#20  stoodents dez daze need to be disciplined.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#21  Honestly, Captain America! It's spelt deez, 'cause of the long e. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 15:06 Comments || Top||

#22  Maybe they just wanted to escape their rat-hole countries and live the good life here. Personally, I wouldn't blame 'em. If they were just being dumb kids, it's too bad their idiot countrymen have spoiled things for them so badly that they're now #1 terror suspects, instead of just dumb kids.
Posted by: ex-lib || 08/14/2006 17:28 Comments || Top||

#23  Has ANYONE gotten around to finding out WHY they didn't report to the colleges?

Still waiting for an answer on that one, JitH. An informal notification needs to be sent to all Islamic countries letting them know that any violation of visa terms by entrants will result in both a permanent ban of the individual and a reduced quota of visas for that country when they are next issued.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 18:27 Comments || Top||

#24  I hear these boys were accepted to the University of GITMO. Their first class is 'Handcuffs and Shackles 101'
Posted by: airandee || 08/14/2006 20:28 Comments || Top||

#25  I know a band that had a song called, "Somba Deez Dayz".
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/14/2006 20:50 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Al Gore to speak at real estate investing seminar
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 07:31 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  He did invent the Multiple Listing....right?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 7:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Tim Blair: "Gore Your Way To Wealth"

the funniest part is he's speaking about Leadership. "No Controlling Legal Authority"
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 7:40 Comments || Top||

#3  He'll be giving the lecture in front of his yacht with 2 bikini models at his side.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 8:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Ah, yes, sucker seminars. $99 and you too can be a powerful sales machine, investing wiz, and just an all around better person! A perfect match for ol' Al, when you think about it.

I loved it when I was a stockbroker, way back when, and a client or friend would ask me about them. They never had a good answer when I would ask them, "Look, if I had a guaranteed way to make 100k with an investment of 2k in less than a month, wouldn't it make more sense for me to work that system than to waste four hours talking to you for $99 and turning you into a competitor for all these sweet deals?"

Can't wait for ol' Al to start hawking a series of books and cassettes on late night TV next. I already have a perfect one for him....."How to Make Millions in Real Estate During the Global Warming Meltdown!! Find where the next oceanfront property will be and make your fortune now!!!"
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 8:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Good Lord, Swamp Blondie, is there nothing you haven't done?
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 8:23 Comments || Top||

#6  a guaranteed way to make 100k with an investment of 2k in less than a month

Hillary did it and so can you.

/Al Gore
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 8:24 Comments || Top||

#7  The real estate selling biz = ripe for disintermediation.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 8:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Hey Al, I thought you were 'carbon'neutral'? It takes an awful lot of greehouse gas emissions to build a house. Not to mention all those lovely trees you have to hack down for the lumber and the space.

Oh, I forgot... Your environmental wackoism doesn't apply to you and other liberal elites. You just want to apply it to the rest of us.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:05 Comments || Top||

#9  greenhouse....errrrr
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:05 Comments || Top||

#10  tw, there's plenty of things I haven't tried yet.

I had a relatively brief career in investment sales when my overlords realized I was reluctant to put ol' granny's life savings into penny stocks and other questionable things. Did ok, but didn't rack up the commissions like some others did, so we, um, mutually parted ways so I could explore other possibilities. Yeah, that's it!

Then I went into guvmint service and got myself into all kinds of trouble. Some of which I even had legal authority to do, others, well, not so much. But we were short-staffed and I was available, with an above average ability to bs, so....you get the idea. ;)

(I think all of that is going to be cake compared to what's coming up soon with the little guy-to-be, however. ;) )
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#11  A Baby Blondie? (Swamp Baby?)

Congratulations and good luck!!
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 12:08 Comments || Top||

#12  That's quite a lineup of speakers.
My one question is what the hell do any of them have to do with real estate investing? It'd be like sending my kid to Steven Hawking's Football Camp.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 12:21 Comments || Top||

#13  Swamp Blondie sed (I think all of that is going to be cake compared to what's coming up soon with the little guy-to-be, however. ;) )

cake and the little unit.

now thats a good investment!

»:-)
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 12:30 Comments || Top||

#14  Thanks, Mike & RD! Little Joey's gonna be more like a Giant Swamp Thang if he keeps this growth rate up. Latest guesstimate is 10 lbs if he goes to due date in October. Could be the future star linebacker for the Seminoles or Gators someday.

Anyway...

My one question is what the hell do any of them have to do with real estate investing? It'd be like sending my kid to Steven Hawking's Football Camp.

Answer....not really one damn thing, tu3031, and they're not intended to, either. Here's the basic scenario.

1) You get together some marquee names to pull in the public. Sports stars are always good, high ranking former politicos aren't bad either (that's where Algore comes in). They give their little platitude laden speeches with the usual "Reach for the stars!" stuff.

A good chunk of the 72 other experts will be motivational speakers who are not as well known, but will be giving basically the same speech as the headliners. Throw in a few "financial speakers" like the fetching Ms Chatzky, and yeah, technically you *did* provide the opportunity to find out about real estate and other investments, so it's all cool.

2) Market it heavily in the local top newsrag, and be sure to show that the price has been slashed to 50% or so of the "original" cost. Title it after some current big idear/hot topic like "leadership", "sales success", "investing secrets", etc.

Real estate's gets everyone's attention right now, so that's why it's squeezed in at the top. Check in a couple of years, and if the market takes a dump and something else is riding high, that will be prominently featured instead.

And the "money back guarantee"? It's only if they didn't provide you with some kind of investment advice, not if it was any good or even relevant to your situation. That's why they have the other topics like using your IRA for real estate, vending machines as a side business, etc.

3) The promoter will probably just break even, might even lose some money based on the admission fee. Again, not the point of the whole thing.

Get the warm bodies in there and some of them will buy books, tapes, etc. None of them are cheap, either. The promoter gets a cut of all that. Also, your name goes on a sucker list, oops, I meant "list of people interested in exciting investment opportunities", and brace yourself for the junk mail and cold calls after they sell your info to every weird little "investment" firm under the sun, and motivational speaker bureau that holds seminars in your locality. That's where the bigger bucks come in to make it all worthwhile.

Hello, sucker! Don't forget to check out the wonderful educational materials our vendors have provided....many not available in stores, and priced low for this day only! Please be sure to bring a friend next year, 'mkay??
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 13:33 Comments || Top||

#15  Speaking of future carbon-aholics, congrats on your upcoming "download", there SB. Of course, I, for one, would like to see lil' Joey head to Auburn if he's that large, lol!
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 13:38 Comments || Top||

#16  Nah, Blondie's already got him set aside for West Point, right?
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 14:19 Comments || Top||

#17  Congrats Swamp Blonde on your incoming 'package' :). I take it he's a boy (guy-to-be).

Babies are great. Looks like he's going to be half grown when he comes.

Hint: Get all the sleep you can *now* :^)
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 14:50 Comments || Top||

#18  So when I see a woman driving at 80 in Phoenix with oven mits on and a baby strapped in the back seat I will know it's SB! Congrats!!
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 14:59 Comments || Top||

#19  You have to upload a baby picture when the big day comes.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 15:10 Comments || Top||

#20  Latest guesstimate is 10 lbs if he goes to due date in October.

Whew! That's a lot of baby!
Posted by: Ptah || 08/14/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#21  Latest guesstimate is 10 lbs if he goes to due date in October.

Whew! That's a lot of baby!
Posted by: Ptah || 08/14/2006 15:14 Comments || Top||

#22  Hey, whatever school Joey wants to go to is fine with us....all scholarship offers will be appreciated when the day comes.

And yes, will upload a pic when he arrives. Might need a wide angle lens, but we'll do it. :P
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 08/14/2006 16:43 Comments || Top||

#23  He did invent the Multiple Listing....right?

Altho ye are dawghoused that was purdy damn funny.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:32 Comments || Top||

#24  So did Al end up buying the timeshare?
Posted by: eLarson || 08/14/2006 20:44 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
U.S. Responded to Plot With Speed, Secrecy
LRR
It was the last week of July, heading into the lazy dog days of official Washington, but Michael Chertoff was suddenly busy.

The homeland security secretary discreetly asked subordinates about plans developed months or even years ago, focused on aviation safety, threat levels and other minutiae. In briefings, he quizzed staffers about responses to an aviation threat: What was the default plan for going to "orange alert"? What items can we ban from airplanes if we need to?

Those taking the questions -- including many of Chertoff's closest aides -- had no idea what was really going on, two senior counterterrorism officials said.

Chertoff's stealthy information-gathering was just one example of the U.S. government's secretive response to an emerging terrorist plot, in which at least 41 suspects were arrested in Britain and Pakistan in connection with alleged plans to blow up jetliners as they flew from London to the United States.

Until the last hours, details of the British probe were confined to a limited coterie of U.S. Cabinet members and senior officials, according to interviews with more than a dozen people who were involved or have since been briefed. The approach ensured that no advance word of the operation leaked out -- but also meant that airlines, airports and even the Transportation Security Administration had only a few hours to ramp up sweeping new measures after being alerted to the threat late Wednesday night. . . .
Go read the rerst of it. It sure seems like DHS handled the situation properly. Note in particular the emphasis on operational security--neither the bad guys nor the New York Times (but I repeat myself) got wind of what was coming down.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 07:25 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  neither the bad guys nor the New York Times got wind of what was coming down

Correction is in order: the bad guys (including the New York Times) got no wind of what was coming down.
Posted by: twobyfour || 08/14/2006 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  This whole thing is a vindication of the NSA program and proof that the NYT and the moonbats are dead wrong. I wish I heard more about this angle.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Correction of the correction is in order: the bad guys intelligence agency: the New York Times didn't get wind what was coming down.
Posted by: DMFD || 08/14/2006 22:48 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Blasts kill 62 in Shiite area of Baghdad
Let's try it again - this time with the link.
Car bombs and a rocket barrage struck a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 62 people, a municipal official said. The rockets apparently were fired from a mostly Sunni district targeted by U.S. troops in a crackdown against the sectarian violence roiling the capital.

About 140 were injured in the attack on the Zafraniyah neighborhood in southern Baghdad, which began about 7:15 p.m. with two car bombs and a barrage of an estimated nine rockets, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Saddoun Abu al-Ula said.

He said the barrage heavily damaged three buildings, including a multi-story apartment house that collapsed. Al-Ula said the rockets appeared to have been fired from the neighborhood of Dora, which has been the focus of thousands of U.S. troops sent to try to restore peace in Baghdad.

The complex style of the assault was similar to a July 27 attack of mortars, rockets and car bombs on another mostly Shiite district, Karradah, which killed 31 people. Police said the rockets and mortars that struck Karradah also were fired from Dora.

A Sunni extremist group, the al-Sahaba Soldiers, claimed responsibility for the Karradah attack to punish Shiites for supporting the "crusaders," or Americans, and the "treacherous" Iraqi government.

Earlier Sunday, the U.S. command announced that soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division had arrested a key terrorist cell leader who was "directly linked" to the July 17 attack on an outdoor market in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad.

The statement said the arrest was made Thursday but did not give the suspect's name. Gunmen believed to be Sunnis opened fire on shoppers and vendors in the Mahmoudiya market during last month's attack, killing at least 51 people and wounding more than 70. Most of the victims were Shiites.

On Sunday, Health Minister Ali al-Shemari, a member of a Shiite group that operates a militia, said American soldiers arrested seven of his bodyguards in a pre-dawn raid on his office.

"There was no legal warrant, there was no prior warning to the ministry, How odd! there was no reason to arrest them. It is a provocation," said al-Shemari, a member of the movement led by radical Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the biggest Shiite militia, the Mahdi Army.

However, a U.S. military statement said coalition forces received a tip from a resident that "15 criminals wearing Iraqi army uniforms" had kidnapped six people and taken them to the Ministry of Health building.

Iraqi and U.S. soldiers searched the building and did not find any kidnap victims. But five detainees were taken in for questioning "based on their positive identification by the tipster," the statement said, without elaborating.

It was not clear if the raid was linked to the June disappearance of a Sunni provincial health official, Dr. Ali al-Mahdawi, who vanished after a meeting with the minister. Just a coincidence? Sunnis claimed al-Mahdawi was kidnapped by Shiite militiamen.

Al-Shemari denied any knowledge of al-Mahdawi's disappearance and said he had interviewed him for a senior post in the ministry.
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 06:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Boy, Sahr's army is'nt very good is it. You'd think with the great training they get from Iran, they could do better than this in thier own land. Assuming Iran cares at all.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/14/2006 8:04 Comments || Top||

#2  At least these Sunnis are better shots than Hizb'allah.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#3  BAGHDAD, Iraq - Residents dug through wrecked buildings and swept glass off the streets Monday in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood devastated by explosions that killed at least 47 people. Iraqis blamed bombs, but U.S. military experts pointed to a natural gas explosion.

U.S. ordnance teams went to the Zafraniyah neighborhood and found “no evidence” of anything other than a “significant gas explosion” Sunday night followed by subsequent blasts related to a gas leak, the U.S. military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said. "If in fact there had been a hole in the ground, there would be some residue from a Katyusha rocket if one had been fired there,” he told reporters.

Iraqi officials insisted the damage was caused by car bombs and a rocket barrage fired from Dora, a mostly Sunni district - evidence that sectarian violence roiling the capital shows no sign of stopping despite an additional 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops soldiers rushed in to enforce peace. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office said in a statement that the attack started with a number of Katyusha rockets falling on a building followed by a car bomb, more rockets on a post office, a motorcycle bomb near a public library and mortar rounds near an Armenian church. The statement said 47 people were killed and 100 injured.

“The terrorists planned this ugly crime so that it would inflict maximum harm on innocent civilians, and this is proof of their deep-rooted hatred for Iraq and their attempt to incite sectarianism,” al-Maliki said.
Posted by: Steve || 08/14/2006 12:44 Comments || Top||

#4  The secret plan.......

Suicide by islam
Posted by: kelly || 08/14/2006 17:03 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Hizbullah distributes Leaflets claiming victory
Hizbullah distributed leaflets on Monday congratulating Lebanon on its "big victory" and thanking citizens for their patience during the 34-day war with Israel.

Supporters of the guerrilla group were seen passing out leaflets to cars heading south on the Zahrani highway, which connects the hard-hit southern cities of Nabatiyeh, Tyre and Sidon.

"Congratulations to you on the big victory, with the support of God, the mujahedeen (holy warriors) and your patience," it read.

The flyers also warned people not to touch any suspicious objects, which could be unexploded ordnance.
Predictable.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 04:17 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [25 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We won! We stopped Israeli advances by hiding behind the innocent women and children that we kidnapped so they wouldn't join the refugee lines. And our ability to hide and launch missiles among civilians, allowed us to pose our dead shields for Eurabian atrocity propaganda. While assuming the propaganda highground, we attacked civilians with anti-personnel ordenance, and we torched over half million trees in Israel, lebanon and the West Bank. And we kept Teheran's ill-gotten oil money coming our way. True, we agreed to a ceasefire that prohibits re-armament, but unless the frontier with Syria is monitored constantly, anything can and will come our way. And our new status of symbol of resistance to America, will cause Israelis to emigrate en masse. We made Iran the new regional power, and the US is too obsessed with making the Iraq mess work, to challenge it.
----------------------
That is what they are thinking, folks. I can think of a huge cure for their optimism...
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 4:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Now there go about settling scores in the civilian population and get away with it while ahe Actual civil government and UN looks on and nods.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2006 5:50 Comments || Top||

#3 
Hizbullah distributes Leaflets claiming victory


any more victories like the present one and they'll be extinct.
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 6:02 Comments || Top||

#4  the bar for Islamic victory is set waaayyyyyy low
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 7:34 Comments || Top||

#5  We won! We stopped Israeli advances by hiding behind the innocent women and children that we kidnapped so they wouldn't join the refugee lines
Would'nt they have stopped the Israeli advances by not attacking the Israeeli's? And then Lebanon would not have billion's of dollars in reconstruction to boot.
Posted by: plainslow || 08/14/2006 8:08 Comments || Top||

#6  I find this hard to stomach, but it is a victory for Hezbollah. They are still here. They still have massive weapons caches with which to threaten Israel. Israel is no more secure. Lebanon and Hezbollah are now one and the same. The UN force will prove to be as ineffective as they have been for the last 28 years. Olmert and Peretz have led the war as PR specialists, not warriors in defense of the Jewish state, and have cow-towed to the anti-Israel Euro lobby in the UN.

Of course many Hezzies were killed and many of their hideouts were flattened. Of course Southern Lebanon's infrasturcture is decimated. But the Hezzies are still breathing air. In the inimitable words of Douglas MacArthur, "In war, there is no substitute for victory".
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:39 Comments || Top||

#7  Is there anything more ridiculous than Islamists boasting? Honestly, for folks who are perpetually consumed with "humiliation", they certainly are unaware of how ripe they are for ridicule. They need a better rear-view mirror.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:47 Comments || Top||

#8  Jules, I agree. But what's even more ridiculous is that they are still conscious.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:28 Comments || Top||

#9  I should stop posting after midnight as I can't see what I have typed.

The tribalist islamc world sees this as a victory. It will spread far and wide that they beat Israel.
What can you do against a world view that stands in the rubble of their civilization and society and declares it a victory,

The only way to deal with them is to wipe them out entirely. That is the only way you can ever beat them. We have not learned this lesson. We will continue to 'lose' to them until we do.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2006 17:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Man Mocks Muslim Candidate at His Home
A Muslim candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates was targeted by a protester who held a sign reading "Islam sucks" and wore a T-shirt with the slogan, "This mind is an Allah-free zone."

Montgomery County police warned the protester, Timothy Truett, after the Saturday incident that he would be subject to arrest on trespassing charges if he steps onto Saqib Ali's property in the next year. Truett, 46, of Montgomery Village, sat in a folding chair on the cul-de-sac outside Ali's Gaithersburg home, which doubles as his campaign office. Ali took several pictures but refused to speak to Truett.

"It was basically an experiment," Truett said Sunday. "I had heard that Muslims were generally intolerant of views other than their own, and so I thought I would put it to the test. I wanted to see what would happen."

He hoped Ali would talk to him, but Ali said nothing. "We steadfastly refused to engage him in conversation," Ali said. "We took a lot of photographs, and he got agitated after a while because we weren't answering him."

Truett got up to leave, and Ali followed Truett to his car and took pictures of his license tags. Truett phoned Ali's office after he left, but Ali hung up on him.

Truett had made an earlier phone call to Ali's office in which he asked if Ali was a Muslim and made derogatory remarks about Islam to Ali's campaign manager.

Truett said he did not think the sign or the T-shirt expressed a message of hate. "It's an opinion," he said. "I don't think there's anything intrinsically hateful about it."

But Ali said he was "insulted" by the slogans and contacted police. He did not get the impression that Truett wanted to start a constructive dialogue. "We don't waste our time talking to people who hate us," Ali said.

Ali, a Democrat, would become the first Muslim member of the House of Delegates if elected. He has not made his religion a major tenet of his campaign.
Posted by: tipper || 08/14/2006 03:57 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I am curious as to enforceability of the hate laws on behalf of Muslims, who are the worst haters in history. That said, the protest is a juvenile waste of time.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 4:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I wonder if some reporter will ask Mr. Ali if he thinks of Israel, but then reporters don't like to ask tough probing questions of Democrats. More likely they will ask what color his car is or where he went to school and avoid the religious aspect.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/14/2006 7:28 Comments || Top||

#3  As I mentioned late last evening, returing to D.C. via Atlanta yesterday. I saw a huddle of TSA employees shucking and jiving near the Delta Airlines check-in counter. One was a African American female in full TSA garb, badge, etc. The only thing that set her apart from her colleagues was her black muzzie head scarf. I feel so PROTECTED!
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  He's a shoe-in. Dems are clueless.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Wait now. As far as we know Mr. Ali is a law-abiding citizen. Rather than ask him of his opinion of Israel (irrelevant, he's running to be a state representative), why not get his financial disclosure statements and see if he's been donating to the Widows Ammunition Fund in some way? If he's clean, then leave him alone.

And vote Republican in the fall, of course.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 9:26 Comments || Top||

#6  It would have been better to make posterboards with quotes from US islamic leaders (Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.). Or quotes from islamic literature found in US mosques (http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/pdfdocs/FINAL%20FINAL.pdf). Makes for much better TV news.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:45 Comments || Top||

#7  I had to give a lesson to an imbecile on religious and ethnic courtesy, not out of any respect for him, but not wanting for those he despised to get arrested for kicking seven bells out of him.

At first he was sneering at a local convenience store clerk for being a Moslem. I advised him not to do this first and foremost because the clerk was a Sikh. Only secondary was the fact that the clerk would probably kick his ass just for calling him a Moslem.

So this rocket scientist turned his animosity to some owners of a different convenience store, who were indeed Moslems. Afghan Pushtuns with barrel chests and the zeitgeist of Apache Indians.

Damn, son. Why don't you go into a biker bar next, give some gorilla a "wet willy" then yell out "Harley bikers are homos!"?

Maybe it's a karma thing.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 11:48 Comments || Top||

#8  Not karma Anon. Future Darwin Award nominee to me. When you look at this "big picture" you see how open/tolerant we really are here in the U.S. Even after killing 3,000 of our fellow 'mericans, there was only a handful of "retaliation" attacks. From what I remember, only 1 or 2 killed (one being a Seikh killed cause they thought he was Muslim). But, try to pull that crap in their countries and look what ya get.
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Turkey and Iran Ally Against Kurd Oil Wealth
The world's deepest oil fields are believed to be in Kurd majority sections of Iraq, and only 15% of the country has been fully surveyed for oil. All the more reason why the Iranian terrorist entity wants to destablize Kurdistan (Iraq). All the more reason why we must have regime change in Iran. All the more reason why the we-don't-do-that mentality is moronic.

8/13/2006 KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Saman Shali

...Turkey wants to destabilize the area further by starting a war against the Kurds and occupying Southern Kurdistan because the Turkish government feels threatened by the flourishing economy and stability that Kurds have fostered. They fear that these successes will incite the Kurds in Turkey to seek federalism too. Turkey is pressuring the U.S. to support its action against PKK and is accusing the U.S. of having a double standard policy with regard to the Kurdish issue. Turkey is drawing an analogy between the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which is supported by the U.S., and opposing action against PKK, which Turkey and Washington both consider to be a terrorist organization. The U.S. ambassador in Ankara Ross Wilson, has noted that the connection Turkey is attempting to draw is a falsehood and completely arbitrary. He stated: "These are two different cases, they should be judged from different perspectives"
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 03:01 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Destabilize Iran, break it apart and join southern and eastern Kurdistan as an independent entity. (I think that Azeris would like a Greater Azerbaijan too).

As for western (Turkish) Kurdistan, hmmm... either Turks would agree to federal arrangement at some point, or Turkey may become a bit smaller.
Posted by: twobyfour || 08/14/2006 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  You're right 2x4, all roads lead to Moolah central. Everything else built on a house of cards.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:07 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
IDF Shot Down Two Unmanned Hizbullah Drones Loaded with Explosives
(IsraelNN.com) The IDF announced on Sunday night that it has shot down two unmanned Hizbullah drones loaded with explosives.

One drone was shot down over Kibbutz Cabri, and the other over Lebanese territory.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 08/14/2006 02:24 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hizzies. not Hezzies - don't these guys know nuclear war will start in 10 days on Aug. 22nd? PRAVDA says so ala Bernard Lewis.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/14/2006 2:42 Comments || Top||

#2  The Buzz Bomb. Hitler's secret weapon of terror. Any Buzz Bomb graphics available?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 7:18 Comments || Top||

#3 
It's somewhat ironic that a farleftist pinko type would have the temerity to use the word "Pravda" in describing the Wall Street Journal. I guess some people have no shame. For those interested in the truth and not the "pravda" version, I exerpted the Lewis quote that was purposely misquoted.


"In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are certain beliefs concerning the cosmic struggle at the end of time--Gog and Magog, anti-Christ, Armageddon, and for Shiite Muslims, the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, ending in the final victory of the forces of good over evil, however these may be defined. Mr. Ahmadinejad and his followers clearly believe that this time is now, and that the terminal struggle has already begun and is indeed well advanced. It may even have a date, indicated by several references by the Iranian president to giving his final answer to the U.S. about nuclear development by Aug. 22. This was at first reported as "by the end of August," but Mr. Ahmadinejad's statement was more precise.
What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds, in the Islamic calendar, to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims commemorate the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f., Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. IT IS FAR FROM CERTAIN THAT MR. AHMADINEJAD PLANS ANY SUCH CATACLYSMIC EVENTS PRECISELY FOR AUG. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind."
Posted by: Clolutle Slans5753 || 08/14/2006 8:14 Comments || Top||

#4  There's a WWII memorial in the square in Greencastle Indiana with one of those bad boys sitting on top of it, at least it used to be there in the 50's and 60's. Anyone confirm?
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 12:52 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
WaPo Says Hizbollah is "Best Guerilla Force in the World"
Hizbollah is not a guerrilla force; it is a standing army, controlled by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its tactics - use of human shields, civilian targeting, etc - are terror operations. Use of Napalm would have eliminated the terrorists within 3 days but Israel cannot use Napalm. WaPo promotes its surrenderist ideology by floating fictions.

...The fighters' Islamic faith and intense indoctrination reduced their fear of death, he noted, giving them an advantage in close-quarters combat and in braving airstrikes to move munitions from post to post. Hezbollah leaders also enhanced fighters' willingness to risk death by establishing the Martyr's Institute, with an office in Tehran, that guarantees living stipends and education fees for the families of fighters who die on the front.

"If you are waiting for a white flag coming out of the Hezbollah bunker, I can assure you it won't come," Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of the Israeli army's general staff, said in a briefing for reporters in the northern Israeli village of Gosherim. "They are extremists, they will go all the way."

Moreover, Hezbollah's military leadership carefully studied military history, including the Vietnam War, the Lebanese expert said, and set up a training program with help from Iranian intelligence and military officers with years of experience in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The training was matched to weapons that proved effective against Israeli tanks, he added, including the Merkava main battle tank with advanced armor plating.

Wire-guided and laser-guided antitank missiles were the most effective and deadly Hezbollah weapons, according to Israeli military officers and soldiers. A review of Israel Defense Forces records showed that the majority of Israeli combat deaths resulted from missile hits on armored vehicles -- or on buildings where Israeli soldiers set up observation posts or conducted searches.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 02:06 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ay what point after Viet Nam was napalm given up as a weapon?
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 8:38 Comments || Top||

#2  It's still in use. But now we have the more "environmentally friendly" firebomb made from jellied kerosine instead of gasoline. And it just happens to be harder to put out.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Aw C'mon WaPo. Give yourself some credit. You're not bad guerillas yourselves.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Napalm is any of a number of flammable liquids used in warfare, often jellied gasoline. Napalm is actually the thickener in such liquids, which when mixed with gasoline makes a sticky incendiary gel. It was developed by the U.S. in World War II by a team of Harvard chemists led by Louis Fieser, and the name comes from the use of the original chemicals, coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids, which were added to the flammable substance gasoline to cause it to gel. [1]

Napalm has been used recently in wartime by or against: Iran (1980–88), Israel (1967, 1982), Nigeria (1969), Brazil (1972), Egypt (1973), Cyprus (1974), Argentina (1982), Iraq (1980–88, 1991,2003-2006), Serbia (1994), Turkey (1974, 1997), Angola, United States.

In some cases, Napalm does not cause physical pain because it incapacitates and kills its victims very quickly. Those who do survive suffer 3rd degree burns, damaging the vascular dermis, which does not have pain receptors. However, victims who suffer 2nd degree burns from splashed napalm will be in significant amounts of pain. [6]
Posted by: Bobby || 08/14/2006 9:14 Comments || Top||

#5  "environmentally friendly" firebomb made from jellied kerosine
Yes, and it is amusing to watch the contortions that the DoD public affairs types go through to not talk about it, when questioned.

Incidentally, One of the nastier aspects of this type of weapon is that when larege cannisters are dropped from an aircraft, on impact it produces a thermal pulse that will ignite almost anything flammable up to ~50m from the incindiary. Near misses are as bad as direct hits.

IIRC, I saw a film of a tank set aligt from a near miss, and none of the stuff actualy came into contact with the tank.
Posted by: N guard || 08/14/2006 9:27 Comments || Top||

#6  I see no mention on how many of these supermen are now worm food.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 11:47 Comments || Top||

#7  Hezballzh must have had a bunch of these jihadists killed. WaPO is not the best source for such a critique. It is a little early for such hyperbole.

I'm not an expert in these matters but it seems to me that Olhmert was lame in prosecuting the war. I wonder if he will survive this little war. He did not follow through on his military plan.

Resolution 1559 was never implemented or enforced. The U.S. should have laid it to Syria and Iran about shipping arms into Lebanon. Russia also brokered arms deals that put anti tank weapons in the hands of Hezballah. The U.S. was too busy trying to look like peace brokers in the mideast. "Jimmy Carterism" just does not work as a viable foreign policy with the islamos. U.N. resolution 1701 is not going to bring peace in the mideast. It is not difficult to look like a reasonable fighting force in view of the incompetence going on in the West.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Is it just me, or does the Washington Post idolize anybody who opposes the US or its allies?
Posted by: RWV || 08/14/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#9  It's not you, RWV. The Washington Post have a bad case of BDS, the poor things.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 15:31 Comments || Top||

#10  If WaPo is so ennamored with the Hezbos, they should move their HDQs to so. Lebanon.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 16:14 Comments || Top||

#11  Fourth Estate becomes Fifth Column
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 17:59 Comments || Top||

#12  The rumor is that if you mix a standard kitchen dishwashing liquid with gasoline in the right proportions you have a fair approximation of napalm for use in Molotov cocktails.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 20:25 Comments || Top||

#13  Oh, yeah, just remembered, you can also, purportedly, mix in styrofoam (dissolved in gasoline) for even better results...
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 20:26 Comments || Top||

#14  We just used orange Jell-O and gasoline when we were kids. Worked pretty well on our slagged out toys.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:03 Comments || Top||

#15  Try moth-balls. No not those moth-balls, the ones used to keep moths off wool
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 08/14/2006 21:09 Comments || Top||


Lebanon: The Cedar Revolutiuon Betrayed
The Security Council’s Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004.

We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime – which was not the only one! – was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.

Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut. In reality, we had just received the chance – a sort of unhoped-for moratorium – that allowed us to take the future into our own hands, nothing more.

Lebanon a victim? What a joke!

Before the Israeli attack, Lebanon no longer existed, it was no more than a hologram. At Beirut innocent citizens like myself were forbidden access to certain areas of their own capital. But our police, our army and our judges were also excluded. That was the case, for example, of Hezbollah’s and the Syrians’ command zone in the Haret Hreik quarter. A square measuring a kilometer wide, a capital within the capital, permanently guarded by a Horla army, possessing its own institutions, its schools, its crèches, its tribunals, its radio, its television and, above all… its government. A “government” that, alone decided, in the place of the figureheads of the Lebanese government – in which Hezbollah also had its ministers! – to attack a neighboring state, with which we had no substantial or grounded quarrel, and to plunge us into a bloody conflict. And if attacking a sovereign nation on its territory, assassinating eight of its soldiers, kidnapping two others and, simultaneously, launching missiles on nine of its towns does not constitute a casus belli, the latter juridical principle will seriously need revising.

As they say, read the whole thing. Its stuff you will not see in the US Press with its bias.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 01:14 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but we're told the Hezbs have 105% support of the Leb public?
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably a bit higher than that when you add in the "American citizens" (whatever that means today) of "Lebanese decent....." whom the U.S. Gummit has flown back here for their "safety" and continued prostilzation of Jewish hatred.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 8:05 Comments || Top||

#3  It's not about land ; it's about islamo fascism Siniora is a whimp and the "government" a parody.
Posted by: Duh! || 08/14/2006 8:11 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think Siniora is a whimp. I do think he is a man with a bull's eye on his forehead and a knife in his back.

After the PM's assassination, several other pro-democracy politicans and journalists were assassinated.

I suspect that Siniora and other pro-democracy members of the cabinet see the new resolution as a mandate to disarm Hezbo. They didn't get the backing of the UN with 1559.

The cabinet meeting that Hezbo backed out of yesterday, when it does finally meet, will be most telling.
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:25 Comments || Top||


UN-BROKERED TRUCE GOES INTO EFFECT IN LEBANON
A UN-brokered cease-fire meant to end more than a month of bitter fighting between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect Monday morning at 8 A.M.

Tension was high before and after the deadline. Israel launched new air strikes on Lebanon on Monday less than two hours before a UN-brokered truce was due to go into effect at 8 A.M.

Air raid sirens sounded in Haifa, Safed, and other hard-hit communities in the north as the truce deadline neared early Monday, as authorities braced for a possible last-minute salvo by Hezbollah gunners. But there were no reports of rockets.

The army is recommending that once the cease-fire takes effect, Israel should begin withdrawing its forces from Lebanon relatively quickly.

The intention is for the forces to move back to a line north of the border with Lebanon within about 10 days, or as soon as the Lebanese Army is ready to begin entering South Lebanon. This means that the IDF will not be conducting searches for Hezbollah fighters or arms caches in the areas that it has captured over the last few days, which the army defined as "the heart of the operational campaign" against Hezbollah.

Once the Lebanese Army is fully deployed in the south, together with a beefed-up UNIFIL force, the IDF troops will withdraw completely.

Sunday, five IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting and more than 30 were wounded, 10 of them seriously. In addition, despite the IDF's advance, Hezbollah fired some 250 rockets on Israel, the war's heaviest one-day total to date. The strikes killed one person and wounded dozens.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and the chiefs of the defense establishment met Sunday night to discuss the cease-fire, and Olmert ordered the army to begin abiding by it as of 2 A.M. Monday morning, other than in cases of self-defense.

But Israeli air strikes went on well after that time, targeting areas in eastern Lebanon and near the southern city of Sidon, the security sources said. Fierce clashes between Israeli troops and Hizbollah were also reported early on Monday.

The eleventh-hour airstrike hit an office of the pro-Syrian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General-Command on the edge of the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in the southern city of Sidon. One person, a garbage collector, was killed and three civilians who lived nearby were wounded, security officials said.

Air strikes on the village of Brital near Lebanon's eastern border with Syria overnight killed at least nine civilians, medics said.

Olmert and the defense chiefs also agreed that the IDF will begin withdrawing some of its forces from Lebanon immediately, but will remain in various positions that offer control over surrounding areas until these positions can be handed over to the Lebanese Army and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

As of Sunday night, the IDF had begun removing the first reservist units out of Lebanon. Over the coming days, the remaining forces will be gradually reduced, and in some cases, reservists will be replaced with regular army units.

IDF sources admitted that in the time remaining until the cease-fire takes effect, the army will only manage to reach the Litani River - which was the goal of the current offensive - in a few places.

Late Sunday night, the General Staff drafted new rules of engagement for the forces that will remain in Lebanon once the cease-fire goes into effect. Army sources told Haaretz that the new rules will allow soldiers to open fire at any Hezbollah fighter who endangers them. If necessary - meaning if troops are endangered, if wounded men need to be evacuated or if a pinned-down force needs to be rescued - commanders will also be able to call in helicopter fire, fighter jets and artillery.

As soon as the cease-fire takes effect, the IDF will order its ground forces to halt their advance. In addition, Israel is considering lifting its naval and air blockade of Lebanon. If it does so, it will also cease firing on trucks crossing the border from Syria into Lebanon, which may enable Hezbollah to acquire a new arms supply - particularly since large weapons shipments from both Iran and Syria are known to be waiting on the Syrian side of the border. In addition, the IDF will not conduct bombing raids in Beirut or other places deep in Lebanon's interior.

The IDF believes that the cease-fire might well lead Hezbollah to stop its rocket fire on Israel, though Military Intelligence also suggested that the organization might try to fire long-range rockets at the Tel Aviv area in the final hours before the cease-fire takes effect, in order to "have the last word."

However, Hezbollah is considered likely to continue attacking the ground forces that are slated to remain inside Lebanon until the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL take over.

As a result, defense establishment officials are doubtful that the cease-fire will hold.
I expect to have an update within the hour that the ceasefire is broken.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 01:05 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Might as well consider the truce still born.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  DOA
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 1:17 Comments || Top||

#3  IDF sources admitted ... the army will only manage to reach the Litani River ... in a few places.

Too little too late - a botched campaign due to political intransigence at the beginning.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 1:27 Comments || Top||

#4 
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 08/14/2006 1:39 Comments || Top||

#5  From Jpost at 8:25. Not clear if happened before or after CF came into effect.

Following a ceasefire decleration between Israel and Lebanon, Palestinians stepped up their Kassam attacks Monday morning. Two Kassams struck the marina in Ashkelon, causing one person to go into shock. There was no report of damage.
Posted by: phil_b || 08/14/2006 1:41 Comments || Top||

#6  FREEREPUBLIC.com > Lebanon's UN Ambassador - the new ceasefire will be Israel's last with any ME country + Lebanon's govt will not force HIZBOLLAH to disarm to leave south Lebanon. Once again, the Great Satan is in the differences in spelling between Syrian HEZBOLLAH vs. Iranian HIZBOLLAH.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/14/2006 1:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Ah...the UNtruce
Posted by: Slomogum Wheregum5256 || 08/14/2006 5:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Since the ceasefire came into effect
Hizbullah gunman hit by IDF fire in southern Lebanon

Hizbullah emerges from hiding, renews broadcasts
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 6:12 Comments || Top||

#9  NPR reported this morning that Lebanese civilians are streaming southward toward their homes, and Israeli civilians are streaming northward toward theirs. I await confirmation from actual witnesses.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 8:02 Comments || Top||

#10  Death Wish VI?
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 8:42 Comments || Top||

#11  Displaced Lebanese civilians and Hezbollah reinforcements are swarming towards the war zone of southern Lebanon to take advantage of a "cease fire." -- That's a more accurate headline.
Posted by: Ulelet Uniting8249 || 08/14/2006 12:09 Comments || Top||

#12  Most likely jihadists from everywhere are streaming into southern Lebanon.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 12:18 Comments || Top||

#13  And why did this "truce" go into effect, seeing as how the Hezzies explicitly said they won't honor it?

Not that anyone with 2 brain cells ever thought they would.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:44 Comments || Top||

#14  DEBKAfile: Hizballah is filtering reinforcements into South Lebanon among returning refugees. They are taking up positions in the still undamaged bunkers and fortified civilian dwellings

August 15, 2006, 12:01 AM (GMT+02:00)

Therefore, although the rockets and guns were silent up to Monday night and thousands of displaced people in Israel and Lebanon headed for their ravaged homes, DEBKAfile’s military sources report trepidation about the durability of the ceasefire. The tense calm was marred only by three incidents in which Israeli troops shot Hizballah fighters making threatening approaches after Israel ordered its ground, air, artillery and naval forces to hold their fire at 0800 Monday Aug. 14 – unless threatened.

Northern Israelis came out of their bomb shelters after 33 days, South Lebanese cars clogged roads heading south from Beirut Monday morning. Both met scenes of destruction. After night fell, Hizballah staged victory celebrations in Beirut, while its leader, Hassan Nasrallah proclaimed a “historic and strategic victory” over Israel.

The IDF’s northern command watching the thousands of displaced Lebanese flocking to their homes feared they would be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire for reinforcing its depleted South Lebanese forces.

By afternoon, their fears were realized: cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment were clearly visible heading south. Israeli troops were not authorized to stop them. DEBKAfile quotes a senior military source as saying that Hizballah is making a mockery of the ceasefire which Israel honored. “The situation is dangerous,” he said, Most of Hizballah’s fortifications, including its bunker network in the south, were not destroyed as reported. Fresh Hizballah strength is now heading back to man those war stations anew.

Earlier Monday, Lebanon’s Shiite parliament speaker Nabih Berrir asked for 48 hours to persuade Hassan Nasrallah to accept a new proposal for Hizballah forces to remain in the south with their arms as an auxiliary force attached to the Lebanese army units to be deployed south of the Litani River.

Israeli troops inside Lebanon will hold their positions until a strengthened international force and the Lebanese army are able to take over.
Posted by: Legolas || 08/14/2006 17:15 Comments || Top||

#15  And why did this "truce" go into effect, seeing as how the Hezzies explicitly said they won't honor it?

Spot on, Barbara. The Israelis should have free rein to continue picking off Hezbollah partichants wherever they can be found. This is 24 karat pure unadulterated USDA grade AAA extra large ranch style dry aged select prime cut Heinz 57 varieties of bu||shit!
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:09 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Church, houses attacked near Sharaqpur
LAHORE: More than 30 armed men attacked a church and Christian houses in Mominpura Thaiki village near Sharaqpur, 35 kilometres from here, late on Saturday. A decades-old land dispute between Christians and a Muslim landlord from a nearby village is said to be the cause of the incident.

“... attackers from a nearby village had thrown hand grenades into the church, demolished a part of it, set ablaze two houses adjacent to the church, desecrated holy books, beaten up Christian men, children and women and torn off their clothes...”
Eyewitnesses said that the attackers from a nearby village had thrown hand grenades into the church, demolished a part of it, set ablaze two houses adjacent to the church, desecrated holy books, beaten up Christian men, children and women and torn off their clothes. They also took valuables from the church. Witnesses said that a number of Christian women fled the village while others took shelter in Muslims’ houses. Later, local Muslims came to rescue their Christian neighbours. The Muslims, who own about 10 houses in the 65-house Christian village, took their weapons out to rescue the Christian women and children. They opened fire at the attackers and made them flee. But the attackers took one Bashir Masih and his 25 cattle heads with them before leaving the village. Bashir, who lives in the house adjacent to the church, had tried to resist the attackers. As a result, they injured him critically and also ransacked his house. Bashir was still missing on Sunday evening.

“Mehr Yaqoob, a landlord from the nearby Raajian Araaian village, tried to grab the village land. He forged documents in an attempt to take the village land on lease and a case was registered against him...”
Joseph Francis, coordinator for the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), said that the Mominpura Thaiki village had spanned 34 acres of land owned by the Forests Department. He said that the residents had shifted to Mominpura after floods washed away their old village in 1988. A few years later, Mehr Yaqoob, a landlord from the nearby Raajian Araaian village, tried to grab the village land. He forged documents in an attempt to take the village land on lease and a case was registered against him, Francis said, adding that several cases were pending against Yaqoob in the courts.

Later on August 7 this year, Yaqoob allegedly attacked the Christian village with armed men to get it vacated and critically injured three Christians. On August 8, Sharaqpur police registered a case against the accused under the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), but it did not arrest them. On August 12, the accused were given interim bail and a few hours after their bail they allegedly attacked the Christian village again.
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:


Kashmir Korpse Kount
SRINAGAR, India - Six people, including three suspected Pakistani terrorists rebels, were killed in fresh violence in Kashmir ahead of India’s Independence Day later this week, the army and police said Sunday. ‘The three Pakistani terrorists militants were killed during a gunbattle that erupted when troops laid a cordon around a village on a tip-off late Saturday,’ said spokesman Colonel Hemant Joneja.
That would be Mahmoud the Weasel reporting.
Fighting erupted after Indian troops, backed by counter-insurgency police, raided a hide-out in the village of Ringpait, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Srinagar. ‘The slain terrorists militants are Pakistanis and belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba,’ Joneja said, referring to the Kashmiri terrorist militant group.

In the neighbouring district of Baramulla an Indian security officer was killed and two others injured in a late night ambush by terrorists militants. In another incident, Indian troops shot dead a senior commander belonging to the region’s most powerful terrorist militant group, Hizbul Mujahedin, in southern Doda district on Sunday, police said.

Suspected terrorists militants also fired at two teenaged Kashmiri sisters Sunday in southern Pulwama district killing one and wounding the other, police said. The motive behind the attack was unclear.
Maybe to 'terrorize' them?
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Kimmie finally shows face publicly
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has made his first public appearance since his country test-launched a barrage of missiles more than a month ago, official media reported Sunday. Kim visited a farm run by an army unit and was accompanied by top generals, according to KCNA. As usual with such reports, the exact time or location of the trip were not given.

Kim's last reported public appearance was July 4, a day before Pyongyang launched seven missiles, including a new long-range model believed capable of reaching the U.S. that failed shortly after takeoff. Kim's absence from public view had fueled speculation of a possible crisis in the country in the wake of the missile tests and international reaction.

However, Kim has dropped from sight before for longer periods of time: In 2003, he was not reported to have ventured out for seven weeks after the country quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the United States moved toward invading Iraq.

In the latest visit, Kim toured a rabbit and goat farm producing food for the military - the focus of his ``songun'' policy that gives soldiers first priority for the country's scarce resources. ``As our country has many mountains, it is possible to raise goats and rabbits and other grass-eating animals in every part of it,'' Kim said, according to KCNA.
Provided your citizens don't get to the grass first.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Texas Terrs Targeting Mackinac Bridge
CARO, Mich. — Three Texas men were arraigned Saturday on terrorism-related charges after police found about 1,000 cell phones in their minivan, and prosecutors say they believe the men were targeting a bridge connecting Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas.

"All we did is buy the phones to sell and make money," Louai Abdelhamied Othman told the magistrate. He said authorities had previously stopped the group in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. "We've been checked by the FBI before," he said. "They even gave us their card and everything."
And you kept buying up cell phones and planning missions ...
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene told The Saginaw News that investigators believe the men were targeting the 5-mile long Mackinac Bridge. He declined to say what led investigators to that belief.
What's wrong with the Golden Gate Bridge? It would be a much bigger headline and you would have a much better chance of beating the rap.
Maybe less attention being paid to the Mac?
GG gets a LOT of attention. Due to the location, it is constantly under painting and other maintenance -- they work their way from one end to the other and then start over in a 3? year cycle.
Othman and Maruan Awad Muhareb, both of Mesquite, Texas, and Adham Abdelhamid Othman, of Dallas, were stopped before dawn Friday after they purchased 80 cell phones from a Wal-Mart in Caro. Police said they found about 1,000 cell phones in their minivan.

Adham and Louai Othman are brothers and are in their early 20s. Muhareb, 18, is their cousin. All are being held at the Tuscola County Jail, Caro police said. Muhareb told the magistrate: "This is a misunderstanding." He said he was selling the phones to earn money to help pay for his brother's college education.
I'm sure al-Q pays well, too.
We probably ARE nabbing some guys in these sorts of arrests who are relatively innocent .... in their countries of origin the ahem informal economy is so prevalent that they would be likely not to see anything wrong with this even if they were innocent.

Not that these guys seem to fit that profile. But even if they did, given the stakes, and the reality of terror threats, they're gonna have to learn the rules a lot quicker here.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [17 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Grrrrr. Now they're messing with My home state. Perhaps they picked it precisely because it is less obvious and less likely to be protected. Though it's no longer the longest in the world (probably not in the top 10 any more), it would still be a terrible loss, especially in the summer with all the vacationers and their children.

Oh, and we always spelled it "Mackinaw" for the city and the bridge. "Mackinac" was reserved for the island. Of course, that doesn't mean we were correct in doing so.
Posted by: Jackal || 08/14/2006 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  We have had 5 years of this crap, after they gave us the pretext (9-11) of the millenium. And CAIR keeps telling us both that the perps are non representative of the "religion of peace," and that we have to ensure these terrorists get their Korans and halal foods.

And now Ahmadinejad looks at America, like the cat who is about to eat the canary. Things have to change, fast.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 1:06 Comments || Top||

#3  Jackal, I spent a few years in your home state and, based on what I recall, the Othmans may be severely underestimating the firepower contained in the closets and gun cabinets in those parts.
Posted by: JAB || 08/14/2006 1:08 Comments || Top||

#4  SS 3550 Things have to change, fast. Yes they do! If things are not turned around quickly we and the rest of the world are in for a lot of trouble.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 1:13 Comments || Top||

#5  Being from Texas, I cannot understand how we could have screwed up training these terrorists. I mean, there are a lot of bridges that connect to Mexico that should be blown. Oh, I forgot, the illegals can swim.
Posted by: Spavigum Glinens9851 || 08/14/2006 1:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Also, if only the three told the cops, "The illegals in Texas pay us $5 more for these 1,000 phones!" they would have just gotten a speeding ticket.
Posted by: Spavigum Glinens9851 || 08/14/2006 1:21 Comments || Top||

#7  Texas Terrorists Targeting Mackinac Bridge

What's wrong with the Golden Gate Bridge? It would be a much bigger headline and you would have a much better chance of beating the rap.

jeeze think of all the wadded SF panties in bunch, there'd be the mother of all seething spectacles focusing their HATE at Bush! :-)


bring it..
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 1:40 Comments || Top||

#8  The islamic cancer that is eating up Europe has now send metastatic cells to prepare the ground for the infection of America.
If Americans do not wake up NOW and realize what they are facing, the slow but steady demise of America is guaranteed.
It will take 25 years but it will happen (with a little help of American MSM, Noam Chomsky and the lunatic and rabid Berkley academics).
Destroying the local terrorist cells will not help. What is needed is a crucial devastating blow to the two heads of the Islamic snake Saudi Arabia and Iran.
You Americans must boldly face the two originating sources of the Islamic megalomaniac Chalifat wishing fanatics and destroy them and their poisonous influence once and for all.

You are already deep within WWIII without having realized it.
I hope the free spirit of Texans will guide you to take the right action at the right time.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 2:07 Comments || Top||

#9  RD:

I have a strong feeling that the President is going to do the right thing. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only the first 2 chapters; that book is not finished. The question is: will a US President write Chapter 3?
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 2:22 Comments || Top||

#10  SN 3550,
Either a US president will or Israel will.
It's all a question of timing. If GWB will not be able to justify a nuclear strike politically within the next 6 months, the Israeli PM will have to collect his cochones together and give the instructions.
If both dont have the guts to do this, the west has lost WWIII.
Posted by: Elder of Zion || 08/14/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#11  I think one of those muzzie goat chasers will lite the fuze on a nuke long before we do. Surprised it has not happened already. They are just itchin to fire one off..... at the Joooooos of course.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 7:59 Comments || Top||

#12  Remember, it does not have to be nuclear to be effective. Lots and lots of Daisy Cutters and such will do the trick.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 8:06 Comments || Top||

#13  Neither the American or Israelis will attack the Iranians. Get used to a nuclear Iran and prepare your family for civil defense.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 8:13 Comments || Top||

#14  Bridges: Why do they hate us?
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 8:51 Comments || Top||

#15  Bridges: Why do they hate us?

they're actually very non-judgmental
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#16  btw - Capt. Ed points out that you do NOT make money selling phones, purchased at RETAIL prices, and selling to legitimate customers. Wholesale, maybe, but their story is BS
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 10:09 Comments || Top||

#17  Cell phones in the US are subsidized by rate plans. Many places overseas, one pays full price for the phones.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 10:15 Comments || Top||

#18  I would like to know how the police linked linked these guys to a Mackinac Bridge terrorist attack.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 10:18 Comments || Top||

#19  Word is they were taking / had taken a lot of detailed photos of the bridge, apparently.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 10:26 Comments || Top||

#20  And New Yorkers were all bent because HS $ were being diverted to other areas. These rural areas in the Heartland have been ignored yet that is where they seem to be operating rather freely. I'm surprised the Egyptian students and the cell phone buyers were caught at all.
Posted by: Danielle || 08/14/2006 10:31 Comments || Top||

#21  I s'pect Michigan has more to worry about from Ohio State than these bozos.
Posted by: badanov || 08/14/2006 10:39 Comments || Top||

#22  We had two separate groups of these F**kwits doing exactly the same thing. The group in Ohio had already removed the control chips out of the phones and thrown the remainder into separate boxes. Both gave cops the same lame excuse of reselling for $5 more. What a coincidence. These asswipes need a Cuban vacation until we find out who organized this and what endgame they were playing. The fact that one group had several photos of Mackinac bridge may suggest something here, especially since the Michigan enclave is based nearby. Is there another concentration in Big D?
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 08/14/2006 11:07 Comments || Top||

#23  Oh, yes.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 11:25 Comments || Top||

#24  You know what's sad... that I saw this pic go up on another forum wrt this discussion.

http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/2224/goeringhi4.jpg

And people agreed with it.
I fear that the West doesn't want to defend herself.
:(

I fear that we may be left with what Roger L. Simon wrote as the "horrible conclusion."
Posted by: Anon4021 || 08/14/2006 11:41 Comments || Top||

#25  An attack on the Mackinac Bridge seems pretty far-fetched, but the accumulation of cell phones points to some nefarious Islamic project, such as raising money to send to terrorist groups. I hope the Michigan prosecutors will at least charge the suspects with conspiracy to evade sales/use taxes. That, they can get a conviction on no matter what else happens.
Posted by: Ulelet Uniting8249 || 08/14/2006 11:59 Comments || Top||

#26  "That, they can get a conviction on no matter what else happens. "

I don't think so. Most likely, there will be a plea bargain resulting in community service.

Community service which results in 1-year Mackinac Bridge maintenance, priceless.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 08/14/2006 12:53 Comments || Top||

#27  What's wrong with the Golden Gate Bridge? It would be a much bigger headline and you would have a much better chance of beating the rap.


Why don’t sharks eat lawyers - Professional Courtesy.
Posted by: Hupasing Crath3963 || 08/14/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#28  This seems to be a very basic question, but one that needs answerin':

IF (and that's a big if, in my book) they were really doing this to just make money, why do it so far away from home? By that, I mean, with the cost of gas and all, why do it in Michigan when you live in Texas? Not enough "market share" in Dallas? PSHAW! Something's rotten in Denmark and the story (if true) of them having plans of the bridge itself is enough to throw the "making money" theory out the window.
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#29  "Is there another concentration in Big D?"

They're here like flies on crap! Mostly Pakistanis, they hide themselves amongst our sizable Indian population.

I think there is going to be open season on them before too long. The muzzies that is. Got no beef with the Indians. No pun intended.
Posted by: Claimp Shens5396 || 08/14/2006 14:06 Comments || Top||

#30  Stop calling them Texans. They may have lived in Texas, but they ARE NOT TEXANS. Ever.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 08/14/2006 16:47 Comments || Top||

#31  they're actually very non-judgmental

Ima looking but my bridge collection hasn't been transfered to this computer yet.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 17:35 Comments || Top||

#32  Anon4021, fire up Photoshop and do up some rebuttals with these quotes:

One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
Sir Winston Churchill


An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last.
Sir Winston Churchill


The price of greatness is responsibility.
Sir Winston Churchill
Posted by: Parabellum || 08/14/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#33  If GWB will not be able to justify a nuclear strike politically within the next 6 months, the Israeli PM will have to collect his cochones together and give the instructions.

See below:

Remember, it does not have to be nuclear to be effective. Lots and lots of Daisy Cutters and such will do the trick.

Thank you for being the voice of reason, tw. The only way that nuclear weapons should be introduced into the equation is if there has been a substantial NBC (Nuclear, Biological or Chemical) attack on United States soil. Once that gate is passed then all bets are off. Until that time, the United States has a moral and ethical obligation to avoid first use of nuclear weapons.

We have JDAMs and MOABs aplenty and they will do the job just fine. A number of fuel air bombs set off near the ventilator apparatus of an underground bunker will literally pump the facility's air supply down to near-space vacuum. Staggered bombing sweeps allowing for evacuation of underground sites will catch emerging survivors and any doors left open will assist in a second round of pressure reduction.

As always, I will cite Mrs. Davis's plan which makes a whole lot of sense;

Simply inform all of the rogue regimes that a single NBC attack on American soil will result in ALL of the Islamic majority and terrorist sponsoring nations being glassed and Windexed. No last minute promises of realignment or pleas for pity will be permitted. Glass, smoking glowing glass and lots of it.
Posted by: Grinesing Croluper6420 || 08/14/2006 17:56 Comments || Top||

#34  And, of course, Grinesing Croluper6420 = Zenster
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 18:00 Comments || Top||

#35  btw - as Ace of Spades notes - they're supposedly selling the phones, stripped of batteries, Sim cards and charger for MORE than an intact phone costs retail. Tell me more stories about how they're so valuable overseas

Hmmm... sell phones with key components (charger, SIM card, battery) removed for more money than they cost retail. Sounds like a hell of a business model to me.

1) Buy at retail, not wholesale, or even discounted, prices.

2) Strip out phones of key components usually thought necessary for ordinary use of the phones.

3) Travel to terrorist-friendly Michigan and sell these phones for a greater mark-up than retail.

4) Profit.
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 18:26 Comments || Top||

#36  We could tell, by statistics, based on where a cellphone was sold (serial number) what probable ethnic group the person making the call was from, in places like Israel and the PAL Authority.
Posted by: 3dc || 08/14/2006 20:12 Comments || Top||

#37  Scuse ME, but isn't Dearborn, Michigan the Muslim Capital of America? AND wouldn't a target close to such a nest be a great hit and run target. Hit it and run back into the nest?
Posted by: Spavigum Glinens9851 || 08/14/2006 23:03 Comments || Top||

#38  Here's my take - the guys may have thought they were buying the phones for semi-legit business purposes. I think they were bought to be used as one-time throw away phones for operational cells here in the US. These guys are on to the fact we can do amazing things regarding tracking cell phone calls and locations. The idea they were shipping them verseas is really bogus. You can't swnng a dead cat in the third world without hitting a guy selling "used" (stolen) phones - trust me on that one.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 08/14/2006 23:14 Comments || Top||


Psalm 9-11: I will fear no evil
by Jules Crittenden, Boston Herald

Do you know anyone whose Sept. 11 fears have returned? 

Someone with a sick feeling and a tightening of the chest, bordering on panic? 

Someone distraught or perhaps just withdrawn and distracted in the past few days?

What do you say to calm their fears? 

We drive each day on highways where the likelihood that a dumptruck will veer into our path far outstrips the possibility that we will find ourselves on an airplane targeted by terrorists. The chances that we will get it in any number of benign but equally deadly ways are exponentially higher than the chances that those who want to kill us will, in any given case, succeed.

Logic is irrelevant in combating these fears, as it is with children who fear monsters under the bed. This is not to disparage these fears. The threat is real. And while statistically remote, there is a factor that elevates terrorism beyond the many mundane fates we all dodge daily. It is the malice.

There are men out there who want us dead. This is undeniable. They want to see us all dead. Each and every one of us. They don’t know our names, they don’t know what our thoughts are about their grievances. They don’t know what our actions are and how we’ve lived our lives. They don’t care. They just want us dead.

I wish I had a sweet, comforting post-Sept. 11 lullaby to sing the ones I love to sleep when they experience fear of these evil men. But I don’t. Lullabies combat false monsters. Real monsters require something different.

Psalms, like lullabies, give comfort. But they don’t mask or deny the threat. They embrace it, and show the way to strength and ultimately comfort from within. What might a psalm say to anyone whose 9/11 fears have been reawakened 

Strong, ruthless men and women go long hours without sleep for you. They do everything they can to keep you safe. They are your shield. They will kill for you, and die for you.You can take comfort from that knowledge and draw strength from their example.

But that is not enough. There is something you have to find within yourself. It may be that one day, our shield will fail, and the insidious foe that operates from beyond our borders and even within them will penetrate that shield and kill some of us again.

You must decide for yourself that you will not let them deter you from your path. If they rise against you, you must be prepared to meet them. Prepared to be ruthless in defense of what you love. It may mean that you will die. We all do someday. As a friend of mine who knew what he was talking about once said, it’s not a matter of whether we will die, but how we will die. And when the time comes, the best we can hope for in this life, the one thing we might be able to control, is that we die well.

Each of us must look within ourselves for the strength that pushed the passengers of United Flight 93 forward against their hijackers on Sept. 11, in a successful if tragic assault that prevented further death and destruction. We must look to the bravery of men such as Rick Rescorla, the British-American security executive and Vietnam war hero who shepherded thousands of people out of the World Trade Center but who stayed back himself with the last and ultimately died in the wreckage.

They are towering figures, but each of us has a little, just enough of that in us that we can draw on, to carry us through. We honor them by endeavoring to live up to their example. It begins by repeating to ourselves the words from which others have drawn comfort in time of war and peril for more than 2,500 years.

I will fear no evil.
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  amen bro
Posted by: Jigum Hupolumble7870 || 08/14/2006 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  We must look to the bravery of men such as Rick Rescorla, the British-American security executive and Vietnam war hero A great and inspiring American. A Google search will find him.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 0:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Amen, JohnQC. Rescorla was The Man.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  My mom is almost 80 and went thru WW2 from the Japanese attack on Guam in 1941 thru Occupation thru to VJ Day - apparently, for older Guamanians of her generation, WW2 de facto ended on July 21, 1944 when the Americans landed Marine-Army forces to retake Guam from Japan, not on August 14th, 1945 nor on September 1st, 1945. She recalls seeing many 00's of dead Japanese on one side of a local road, and dead or wounded American soldiers on the other side. She doesn't wanna see another war but at the same time believes all Americans must be ready to fight to defend themselves and for what they believe unless they lose their country. She thinks that politicians and Americans whom don't want to fight should be arrested and put in jail. America and Americans must fight to win, not any half-and-halfs.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 08/14/2006 1:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Can we get personal here? I had the privilege of riding the elevator to the WTC observaton floor in 1991 (only 1 tower had one). Ergo: i actually get phobic vertigo when I see videos of the Towers falling. Having taken an anti-Muslim position in 1978, 9-11 meant: opportunity (to begin to eradicate the worst imperial-genocidal menace ever to arise). As for our post 9-11 policies, they mean: lost opportunity. As for the pending 5th anniversary, it means: opportunity.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 3:17 Comments || Top||

#6  SS, the lunatic muzzies are bent on winning this, therefore, the opportunities will be served up like clay birds in a skeet shooting match.

Pull !
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 7:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Perhaps, James. Maybe the very intensity and fanaticism with which they fight will be their undoing. If they were a little more patient and subtle, like the Chinese, they might eventually get their world Islamic kingdom. The way they are operating now, maybe the civilized world will finally tire of their threat and eradicate them once and for all.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 8:56 Comments || Top||

#8  And, James....here's to hopin' that Veep Cheney is the one with the shotgun, lol. Taking two birds (Muzzies and Attorneys) out with one stone.
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 13:29 Comments || Top||

#9  Hear! Hear! Joe! Thanks for that one.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 19:53 Comments || Top||


August 14, 1945: V-J Day
Original opinion. The link is to the BBC story of that day. The photo needs no explanation.
On this day, 61 years ago, World War II finally ended with the surrender of Japan.

In the words of Harry Truman, in an address to a crowd that had gathered outside the White House, "This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would."

Fascism since has reared its ugly head in places like Serbia and Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The fight goes on. Victory may not always look like V-J Day. It may not always be signed off on the deck of a battleship. There may be neither a ticker-tape parade nor a pretty girl to kiss in Times Square.

Some fear victory won't come at all. How many times did we think that in the dark times of the Bataan retreat, the shelling of Corregidor, the Battle of the Coral Sea? How many times did young Marines trapped on a hellish island wonder just why they were there?

We faced a brutal enemy then. We face another today. The Empire of Japan used everything she'd learned about the West to attack us and did so without mercy. The Islamofascists of today use their knowledge of the West to attack us and, like the Japanese back then, do so today without mercy. Like the Japanese, groups like al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba have managed to adapt technology from the West so as to attack us without coming to understand the most important weapon we have: the resolve of an angry people.

Japan learned better: the merciless reduction of their island fortresses. The continued attack on their Navy. The fire-bombing of Tokyo. Hiroshima. By the time it was over Japan had come to see that there few things more dangerous than an enraged Western democracy.

Some of us thought we'd seen that after 9/11. Lord knows we've had reminders since. Bali. 3/11. 7/7. How many others, and how many more in the future? Some of us, not enough of us, are enraged.

It's going to change. It may take another horrific attack on us or our friends. I hope not, I hate seeing innocents die. But whatever al-Qaeda does to enrage us, they need only look at history to understand what then will happen.

V-J Day. Remember.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sady for our generation, this war will not end with a surrender ceremony on the deck of the USS Reagan. It will end only with a nuclear Gotterdammerung in Iran, and a long drawn out gult trip laid on us by the traitors among us.
Posted by: N guard || 08/14/2006 9:39 Comments || Top||

#2  There'll be bluebirds over
The white cliffs of Dover,
Tomorrow
Just you wait and see.

There'll be joy and laughter
And peace ever after,
Tomorrow
When the world is free,
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  The problem N guard is that the nuclear Gotterdammerung will start with hundereds or thousands of warheads flying into the US. I believe our descendants will curse us for our cowardice and squeamishness.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  I know it's been said and written about many times that this was the greatest generation. I have to agree.

These were real Americans, tough as nails. They understood some fundamentals that have been long since forgotten. Unjaded by the cynicism of the left, the wanton excess of the 50's and 60's, the various 'revolutions', and the blame-America-first liberals, they had all the equipment and mentality necessary to win a war and save the western world. Not to mention the one thing we sorely lack today: Unity in the face of the enemy.

Could we do the same today? Maybe so, but the jury's still out. Islamo-fascism is as big a threat to the stability of the world as Nazism and Japanese militarism ever were. We'll see in the coming years if we measure up.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:58 Comments || Top||

#5  The 'greatest generation' had its share of leftists too; many who grew up during the Depression were Communists or Socialists. I talked to one of them a few days ago, a gentleman in his late 80s who had been a pilot in the 100th Bomber Group. It was called the Bloody 100th because it had such a high casualty rate making daylight bombing runs on German targets. The original crews had a 77% casualty rate (combining KIA, POW, wounded, etc)and their replacements fared similarly. The gentleman I met had been a Communist activist in high school, but it didn't stop him from fighting as effectively as anyone who had always been a patriot. He flew 35 missions as a pilot and was good enough at it that he always made it back, though not always with the plane in one piece. Besides, I think the current generation deserves a lot of credit for its performance in both Gulf Wars. Wars are much harder to fight when there are so many restrictions on killing the enemy. I don't think the current generation suffers from a lack of fighting spirit; they just have to deal with more constraints.
Posted by: Odysseus || 08/14/2006 17:18 Comments || Top||

#6  I thought it was August 15. Maybe it's the time difference.
Posted by: Flaigum Whelet4630 || 08/14/2006 21:11 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran threatens to pull out of nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Tehran, Iran, Aug. 13 – Iran threatened on Sunday to discontinue its membership of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if the international community tried to deprive it of its nuclear “rights”.

The threat came from Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel who is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Iran will not accept a suspension of [uranium] enrichment”, Haddad-Adel told an open session of Majlis.

“If Iran’s membership in international organisations including the International Atomic Energy Agency means that we will be deprived of our inalienable rights then we will have no reason to continue our membership in these organisations”, he told Iranian lawmakers.

Separately, hard-line lawmaker Mahmoud Mohammadi told reporters in Majlis that Tehran had “serious doubts” about continuing its cooperation with the IAEA. Mohammadi, who is a key member of the Majlis National Security Committee, said, “This resolution proved that the IAEA does not act responsibly to guarantee the rights of its member states. The Islamic Republic of Iran will never accept these pressures and threats and it rejects them”.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can we just bomb them now just so I do not have to here anymore of their BS.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Who cares? They don't abide by it anyway -- and they'll be toast within the next year.

Irrelevant.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Whether or not they pull out of the non-proliferagtion treaty is not material. They are still the enemy and still a threat. They will still develop their nuclear arsenal whether there is a treaty or not. They view treaties as a way to bide for time to gain advantage. They view treaties as something to be broken. Why bother with treaties with them?
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 1:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Destroy Iran now.
Posted by: SR-71 || 08/14/2006 5:48 Comments || Top||

#5  We have the planes. We have the ordnance. We have the fuel. We have the bases. We have the carriers. We already know the targets. We're already deployed in the region. We have the manpower. Sounds good to me.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 10:05 Comments || Top||

#6  We aren't quite ready. We found out yet again, that aerial bombs simply don't touch underground bunkers/tunnels. The ones the Iranians constructed in Lebabnon were like their own, but not as deep. We can't touch them in Iran until we develop munitions which can actually destroy deep tunnels. Or decide to really go after them with large nukes, and just get rid of their population.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 08/14/2006 11:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Pull Ahmanutdjihad and his staff out of life as soon as possible.
Posted by: leroidavid || 08/14/2006 19:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Ditto Leeroid! As they say in Texas, "some men just need killin."
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 19:22 Comments || Top||

#9  We found out yet again, that aerial bombs simply don't touch underground bunkers/tunnels.

Use localized drops of fuel-air ordnance to suck the air out of these installations. Cripple all of their environmental control systems, which must be near the surface for heat exchange reasons, and then go after all of the access and egress points pertaining thereto.

Wait for several hours after the first wave of bombings and then come back to bat clean-up on all emerging wounded and other hostiles. This wave should also manage to catch some doors open whereby further administration of fuel-air bombs will evacuate the atmosphere from these already damaged facilities. Those who are inside of the bunkers are among our primary targets in that they represent the most highly trained nuclear technologists that Iran possesses.

More importantly, any attack must be coordinated with a comprehensive decapping of all Iranian leadership. This must be a top-down affair that strips out all of mullahs, their material wealth and whatever fallbacks they have amassed.

Finally, a simple notice that any further resistance will be met with a complete and total crippling of their petroleum industry.

This is doable. We have no options. Israel could only achieve similar results through the use of nuclear weapons and that is not a valid approach at this time. Iran must be taken down.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Ten killed in rocket and bomb attack in Baghdad
BAGHDAD - At least 10 people were killed and 56 wounded when a rocket attack demolished a building and a car bomb hit rescuers rushing to the scene in Baghdad on Sunday, an interior ministry official said. The twin explosions knocked down a four-storey building in the Zafaraniyah district of the Iraqi capital, the official and a witness said.

‘A Katyusha rocket landed on a building in the Al-Qubyasi market. Five minutes later, 100 metres (yard) away from this building a car bomb went off,’ said the official after the blasts, which erupted at about 7:00 pm (1500 GMT).

A medical official who lives in the district and who saw the attacks told AFP: ‘There are dozens of bodies in the street. The building just collapsed. It was four-storeys, with homes and shops.’

‘Civil defence personnel are trying to get bodies out of the building. The shops underneath are destroyed,’ he said.

A third blast, apparently a roadside bomb, targeted a police patrol heading for the scene, the interior ministry official added. Three officers were wounded in this apparent follow-up attack, he said.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "A Katyusha rocket landed "

Delivery from Iran to HizbAllah got sidetracked to Mookie?
Posted by: Department of Homeland Security || 08/14/2006 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  An unlikely explanation has been issued by the U.S. Military. Investigation of explosions in Baghdad must be like documenting every explosion in a very large fireworks display.
Posted by: Ulelet Uniting8249 || 08/14/2006 12:04 Comments || Top||

#3  It may not be so unlikely. Natural gas leaks and explosions are not unheard of even where infrastructure is well-maintained. Of course, sometimes natural gas explosions in Baghdad are 'on purpose' - the terrorists soup up their car bombs with propane bottles.
Still, if we say there weren't rockets, we either had a reason to say it, or there really weren't rockets. What might be a reason to lie, if that's what it was? It's not like these guys are pathologic liars (like some politicians we know.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 08/14/2006 12:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kashmir Korpse Kount Kontinued
SRINAGAR, India - Indian soldiers shot dead three members of a Pakistan-based terrorist militant group in a gunbattle in Indian Kashmir, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

The clash broke out on Saturday evening near the town of Handwara, 80km (50 miles) north of Srinagar. ‘Three terrorists militants were killed in the night-long operation. They are Pakistani nationals and belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba,’ army spokesman Hemant Joneja said.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Iraqi forces raid health ministry
BAGHDAD - Iraqi and US troops hunting alleged kidnappers raided the health ministry Sunday, arresting five suspects. ‘Acting on an Iraqi citizen’s tip regarding kidnap victims, Iraqi forces with US advisers searched the Ministry of Health at about 2:30 am and detained five for further questioning,’ an official from the US-led coalition said.

Following the raid, health workers mounted a small non-violent anti-American protest outside the ministry, to demand the release of the detainees, whom an official described as bodyguards to the minister, Ali al-Shamari.

Senior health ministry official Hakim al-Zamli said US and Iraqi troops arrived in the early hours and had captured seven suspects. He told AFP the troops had taken 50 million dinars (38,000 dollars) in cash. Zamli said health workers had gone on strike in protest at the raid, but that emergency health services would be maintained. ‘Our demands are the release of the detainees, a promise not to raid the ministry, compensation for the damages and an official apology,’ he told AFP.

But the coalition official, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official statement on the raid was being prepared, said the raid was carried out after Iraqi forces received information relating to a kidnapping. ‘It is for the benefit of the Iraqi people that these forces conducted the search and detained the suspects for further questioning,’ he said.

Iraq’s ministries are controlled by rival factions within the country’s fragile coalition government, and ministers’ bodyguards have sometimes been accused of acting as private militias in the brutal world of Baghdad politics.
Oh there's a surprise.
The health ministry is headed by a Shiite minister who is a member of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) party and is regarded as close to the radical anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Mediation between rival sectarian groups fails
An attempt by leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal to begin a settlement between rival sectarian groups Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Sipah-e-Muhammad has ended in failure.

MMA leaders Liaqat Baloch and Maulana Abdul Gahfoor Haidery approached leaders of the two militant organisations, both of which have been banned by the government, with the proposal that they pardon each other's members who are on death row, Baloch told Daily Times. The MMA leaders spoke first with LJ leaders, who consented to Baloch and Haidery taking the proposal to the SM. Baloch and Haidery proposed to Rashid Akbar Nawani, MNA from Bhakkar, that if he got a pardon for LJ militant Hafiz Shafiqur Rehman, convicted of murdering a Shia cleric in 1997, the LJ would try to get pardons for three SM militants -- Munawar Abbass, Qamar Abbas and Qazi Shahnawaz -- on death row in Dera Ghazi Khan Jail for the murder of LJ militant Aslam alias Achoo in Karor tehsil, Layyah district.

Baloch said they approached Nawani last month after President Gen Pervez Musharraf rejected Rehman's mercy petition. However, Nawani did not agree to the proposal, and Rehman was hanged at Multan jail on August 9. Lashkar-e-Jhangiv is a Sunni militant group and Sipah-e-Muhammad a Sunni [sic] militant group.
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [15 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: WoT
Threat to U.K.-U.S. Flights Downgraded
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department on Sunday reduced the threat level for U.S.-bound flights from Britain from red, for ``severe,'' to orange, for ``high.'' All other flights operating in or destined for the United States remain at orange.

``The security measures already taken have allowed us to address an imminent threat of attack for flights between the United Kingdom and the United States,'' Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a statement. ``Let me be clear: This does not mean the threat is over. The investigation continues to follow all leads.

``In particular, we are remaining vigilant for any signs of planning within the U.S. or directed at Americans,'' Chertoff said.

Earlier Sunday, air travelers were handed new rules, given permission to carry small amounts of liquid nonprescription medicine onto a plane and instructed to remove their shoes during security checks. The shoes have to be placed on an X-ray belt for screening before passengers can put them back on. The eased restrictions on medicine and the mandatory shoe removal were among several measures the Transportation Security Administration ordered Sunday in response to the thwarted terror plot in Britain involving U.S.-bound airplanes.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:


India-Pakistan
Human Rights Commish sez Rauf was tortured
The suspected ringleader of the alleged plot to blow up flights out of Heathrow has provided details that directly link the conspiracy to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said yesterday. The interior minister, Aftab Sherpao, said Rashid Rauf had given investigators "many, many clues which link this plan with Afghanistan, especially the al-Qaida of Osama bin Laden". He said Mr Rauf had been brought before a court and had been remanded in custody for a further two weeks.

Mr Rauf, a British citizen, was held last week in Pakistan and has been pinpointed by security sources in the UK and Pakistan as the plot's prime mover. British officials said moves were under way to extradite him to Britain. Intelligence sources suggested that Mr Rauf was believed to have spent time in Lahore with members of the radical group al-Muhajiroun, now a proscribed organisation in Britain.
Educated in all the right places.
Members of the group, who were supposedly in the country to do welfare work with earthquake victims, were required to leave when it transpired that they were British citizens. The foreign ministry spokeswoman described reports of how the alleged plot had been funded by an earthquake charity as "speculation and fabrication".
"Lies! All lies!"
Reports in Pakistani newspapers yesterday that Mr Rauf had "broken" under interrogation were described by a Pakistani human rights group as confirmation that he had been tortured. Asma Jehangir, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said that it was obvious how the information had been obtained. "I don't deduce, I know - torture," she said. "There is simply no doubt about that, no doubt at all."
Tsk, tsk, real shame, my heart bleeds ... no wait, that's the ball park frank ...
She said it was difficult to get information on the identities and circumstances of those held. "Gone are the days when you could take at face value what the government was saying." She said often detainees' families were not notified of their whereabouts and they might be provided with lawyers who were close to the government.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellent!
Posted by: Ebbolurong Sperese9702 || 08/14/2006 0:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

'nuff said.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 08/14/2006 0:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Sometimes the muzzies do something right.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:43 Comments || Top||

#4  Human Rights activists always care about the life of terrorists, but never about the life of the innocent people those terrorists are trying hard to destroy.

They prefer to protect EVIL rather than GOOD.

This shows their true face.
Posted by: leroidavid || 08/14/2006 19:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Ya think the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan thinks Danny Pearl was tortured?
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 20:46 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
U.S. Analysts debate whether World War III is in the offing
A raging war between Israel and the radical Shiite movement Hezbollah in Lebanon; a de facto civil war in Iraq more than three years after the U.S.-led invasion; mounting conflict over Iran's nuclear program; recent reports over terrorist plans for spectacular attacks against transatlantic aviation; NATO's faltering war in Afghanistan... All of them taking place simultaneously, are these indications that the world is heading for a fresh world war? This is the talk of the day here.

But intellectually, the strongest ideas on where the world is standing with respect to a global conflict, or what the United States should do, came from Richard Holbrooke, a top diplomat during former President Bill Clinton's tenure and hoping to join the next Democrat administration, British military historian John Keegan and Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a leading hawk on foreign policy.

"Two full-blown crises, in Lebanon and Iraq, are merging into a single emergency. A chain reaction could spread quickly almost anywhere between Cairo and Bombay," Holbrooke wrote in an Aug. 10 article in The Washington Post. He then went on to compare the present threat with how World War I broke out, referring to historian Barbara Tuchman's classic, 'The Guns of August,' which recounted how a seemingly isolated event 92 summers ago -- an assassination in Sarajevo by a Serb terrorist -- set off a chain reaction that led in just a few weeks to the world's first global conflict.

"There are vast differences between that August and this one. But Tuchman ended her book with a sentence that resonates in this summer of crisis: 'The nations were caught in a trap, a trap made during the first thirty days out of battles that failed to be decisive, a trap from which there was, and has been, no exit,'" Holbrooke said. He said preventing just such a trap must be the highest priority of American policy. He called on President George W. Bush's administration to contain the ongoing violence in the first place, also urging Washington to engage in talks with Syria and even Iran.

In a counter-article in The Washington Post on Aug. 11, Gingrich mostly agreed with Holbrooke's analysis on the present situation, which he called "an emerging Third World War," but the two men's solution offers diverged greatly. He rejected Holbrooke's calls for dialogue with Iran and Syria, saying the "architect of Bosnian peace" represented the diplomacy first-diplomacy always school. Needless to say, U.S. foreign policy hawks agree with Gingrich's 'go-for-it' approach, and calls by Holbrooke and other Democratic and centrist analysts to engage in talks with Iran face deaf ears from Bush's administration. And Gingrich's position is what the centrists and liberals would call a provocation for the new world war.

As for Keegan, he sees the comparison between today's threats and World War I's outbreak in the eyes of a pure military historian, declining to offer any solutions.

Keegan said: "If the Middle East descends into mutual aggression as a result of the present crisis, it will not be because of similarities or analogies with World War I, but because leaders of states and non-state organizations are willing to run terrible risks."
Posted by: Pappy || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just can't STFU, can he? Holbrooke is another Clintoonian with no actual skills except Gov't BS - drooling over a return to relevance and polishing his resume for the 2008 Dhimmi candidates.

There is no trap, just multiple fronts in the same war. The ONLY thing that can go wrong is a failure of nerve that leads to reinstalling this sort of moron to power and resuming the idiot's approach that the Law Enforcement model can deal with terrorism.

Prosecute Iran - all else follows.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  This is really way overstated. For something comparable to WWI and WWII to occur, there have to be two roughly evenly-matched alliances facing off. Today, we have, at worst, the US alone, squaring off against the Muslim world as a whole. It's a complete mismatch. Only in Holbrooke's dream world does it resemble WWIII.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 08/14/2006 0:28 Comments || Top||

#3  leaders of states and non-state organizations are willing to run terrible risks

In a word: Iran

Additional words: Mahdi Army, Hezbollah.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 1:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Muslims chose global regime change when Abdullah Azzam formed al-Qaeda at-Jihad in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1989. In 1995 Saudi Sheiks al-Hawali and al-Awdah took the globalist message to Teheran (and were jailed for 5 years for so doing), and a joint Sunni-Shiite undestanding on taking war directly to the enemy was settled. However, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan Osama bin Laden placed al-Qaeda on a Wahabi footing (Azzam, a Muslim Brotherhood member, was murdered in November 1989), and Shiites financed the Northern Alliance campaign, as did Pakistan and Saudi Arabia back Taliban/al-Qaeda.

After 9-11, the US exhonerated Pak-Saud terror financing as long as they moved against Wahabi al-Qaeda, while Teheran re-activated its relations with Zawahiri-al-Qaeda. Russia and India, who also financed the Northern Alliance, allied with Teheran, and sell massive amounts of weaponry to the Islamic Republic. In its relations with Iran, Russia invokes counter-balance to the US alliance with Sunni Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It is a fact that these alliances undermine Western Civilization. The US must unite the Free World against Islamic tyranny.

Of late, Condi Rice is attempting to create yet another suicidal Sunni alliance - including Syria (!) - against Iran. She does that even as US/UK occupied Iraq is under Shiite mastery. However, Hizbollah's effective defense-in-depth strategy - as cooked in Teheran - has taken away IDF blizkreig capacity, and has led to a new Sunni-Shiite understanding on the destruction of Israel.

The Genocide-Alliance against Israel will work to treat the US as wallpaper, as a total missile threat is employed.

Unless the Bush government drops both the Middle East Democratic Initiative, and its indulgence of Iraq Shiite majority rule, the nuclearization of Iran will effectively eliminate all American power in the Middle East. By that time, Europe will be under Iranian extortion. American influence will be reduced to the Americas. But even here, Latin American alienation is manifesting in the rise of the same Leftist tyrannies that Reagan Foreign Policy suppressed in the eighties. Ahmadinejad's happy derision of American power, reflects actual weakness projected by the US.

The President's linkage of the enemy - "Islamofascism" - with the World War adversaries that we slaughtered by the millions, is a step in not only the right direction but the only direction that the US can take. If President Bush does not eliminate the Ahmadinejad threat by the end of September, then he will go down in history as the President who put future generations of Americans in the ICBM target jeopardy of the worst genocidal tyranny since the Nazis. We saw Perle/Frum Bush when he gave his eloquent National Cathedral speech on Sept. 14, 2001. We need to see that GWB, and not the Norquist-Powell Bush who catered to the Muslim enemy.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 1:44 Comments || Top||

#5  We need to see that GWB, and not the Norquist-Powell Bush who catered to the Muslim enemy.

You probably will have to wait for either the Giuliani or Clinton Administration. That W, like Elvis, has left the building.
Posted by: doc || 08/14/2006 7:43 Comments || Top||

#6  John Keegan's work is excellent, recomended
Posted by: pihkalbadger || 08/14/2006 15:07 Comments || Top||

#7  It does kinda feel like the eleventeenth Balkan War tho.
Posted by: 6 || 08/14/2006 18:41 Comments || Top||

#8  I've found Keegan entirely too "Britain won WW2 all by itself" for my taste.

However, for pure information and a different perspective I would highly recommend him. He is also highly respected among most military history circles.
Posted by: FOTSGreg || 08/14/2006 18:45 Comments || Top||

#9  After 9-11, the US exhonerated Pak-Saud terror financing as long as they moved against Wahabi al-Qaeda, while Teheran re-activated its relations with Zawahiri-al-Qaeda. Russia and India, who also financed the Northern Alliance, allied with Teheran, and sell massive amounts of weaponry to the Islamic Republic. In its relations with Iran, Russia invokes counter-balance to the US alliance with Sunni Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. It is a fact that these alliances undermine Western Civilization. The US must unite the Free World against Islamic tyranny.

This ideal solution faces one central problem; Much of the Free World has become so complacent reliant upon America's policing of world affairs that, while secretly glad for it, they nonetheless willingly project themselves as critical of the United States and thereby appease potentially hostile replies from staunchly anti-American regimes (read: "Islamic ruled nations").

This duplicity needs to end. So far, only Australia and Britain have demonstrated anywhere near the unalloyed solidarity needed to pose a cohesive front against the terrorist sponsors. Others here at Rantburg have already mentioned a new NATO-sort of alliance whereby signatories all enjoy a mutual anti-terrorist umbrella of cross-protection once they make and keep their commitments in quelling terrorism.

Those nations who have already shown themselves to be so lackadasical in their condemnation of terrorism and any countering thereof must undergo a sort of embargo where they no longer benefit from America's superpower umbrella of protection. The rug needs to be yanked out from under these spineless parasites who constantly undermine our efforts with cries of unilateralism whilst simultaneously enjoying the threat of American intervention should they be attacked. The post-WWII model of NATO in Europe largely describes this same current state of affairs.

We need to establish this group quite soon and somehow rally these resources into a truly nasty set of consequences for those who oppose it.

All of my personal dislikes of G.W. Bush aside, I do not think that he truly possesses the personal charisma or ultimate leadership necessary to convince and recruit this assemblage of foreign powers. I'd love to be proven wrong by the man, but his current waffling regarding Lebanon leaves great doubt in my mind. That said, this administration needs to cobble together a package of sufficiently desirable benefits and long-term gains to dangle in front of prospective new allies. Those who continue to sit on the fence must be confronted with the loss of support in times of peril.

Opinions, embellishments, criticisms and enhancements upon the above are all welcome. We need something substantial and we need it d@mn soon. Iran is cranking up the meat-grinder and unless we subject them to their own devices an age of darkness will descend upon us, not soon to be lifted.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 20:49 Comments || Top||

#10  For something comparable to WWI and WWII to occur, there have to be two roughly evenly-matched alliances facing off.

EUrabia, Russia and China vs. U. S. India & Japan. Sounds pretty even.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 08/14/2006 20:58 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Hospital blast kills nurse in Kohlu
A nurse died and two other people including a pregnant woman were injured when a bomb exploded in the gynaecology ward of a hospital in Kohlu district, officials said on Sunday. Police said they suspect that tribal rebels, who are fighting for greater autonomy and a share of profits from Balochistan's natural resources, could be involved in the blast. The bomb went off late on Saturday in the labour ward of a small hospital in Kohlu district, 400 kilometres southeast of Quetta, said local government official Ali Gul. "It killed a female nurse and wounded a patient and her 13-year-old daughter," he said. The injured were out of danger. "It was a terrorist attack," Gul said. Police official Talib Hussain said the "massive blast" destroyed the ward. Insurgents also blew up a pipeline supplying gas to Quetta late on Saturday, police said. The militants used about 1.5 kilogrammes of explosives to blow up the line, disrupting supplies to the city, police official Tariq Manzoor said.
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [23 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front: Politix
Lamont stunned by partisanship
WASHINGTON - Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont, the anti-war candidate who toppled Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary, says he was surprised by Lieberman and Vice President Dick Cheney’s claims that his victory could embolden terrorists. “My God, here we have a terrorist threat against hearth and home, and the very first thing that comes out of their mind is how can we turn this to partisan advantage. I find that offensive,” Lamont said in an interview Sunday with The Associated Press.
Awwwww, the poo' widdle Dhimmicwat is all upset, is he?
After British officials disclosed they had thwarted a terrorist airline bombing plot on Thursday, Lieberman warned that Lamont’s call for a phased-withdrawal of troops from Iraq would be “taken as a tremendous victory” by terrorists.
Thus reminding everyone that Lieberman is for standing up to terrorists, and Lamont isn't.
Cheney on Wednesday had suggested that Lamont’s victory might encourage “the al-Qaida types” who want to “break the will of the American people in terms of our ability to stay in the fight and complete the task.”
That's a '#1' on the 1 - 10 scale, Ned. I think when Mr. Cheney gets to a '#7' you'll be messing your shorts ...
Lamont said Lieberman’s swipe at his candidacy “sounded an awful lot” like Cheney. “It surprised me,” he said. “It seemed almost orchestrated. It’s sort of demeaning to the people of Connecticut ... I thought the senator and the vice president were both wrong to use that attack (strategy) on the voters of Connecticut.”
It's now Monday and this story is still alive in Connecticut for the fourth day. Nice going Ned.
The Lieberman camp Sunday laughed off brushed aside Lamont’s comments. “All Lieberman did was point out an important difference between his approach to national security and Ned Lamont’s, which is what campaigns are all about,” said Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein.
But it wasn't fair ...
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can not take the heat get out of the kitchen. Lamont going to get his ass handed to him in Nov.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 0:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Lieberman can eat this dilletante alive... if he's willing to.
Posted by: tu3031 || 08/14/2006 0:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Well, the CT Democrats are engaged in a civil war of sorts right now. It'll be intersting to see what shakes out in the next month or two - any longer than that and they're in real trouble.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/14/2006 0:10 Comments || Top||

#4  "Hearth and home"?

Oh, brother.
Posted by: Elmealet Threng6841 || 08/14/2006 0:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Lamont's party, the LLL, keelhauled Lieberman and basicaaly booted Lieberman out of the demo party on the basis of the war issue alone. I hope Lamont gets his butt handed to him in the elecion.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 1:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Lamont stunned by partisanship

jeeze, how'd I get this nasty discharge?
Posted by: Streetwalkin Ho || 08/14/2006 1:14 Comments || Top||

#7  S H: LOL :)
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 1:26 Comments || Top||

#8  did Lamont's crew do another blackface photoshop on Joe? Partisanship? Whoda thunk it
Posted by: Frank G || 08/14/2006 7:43 Comments || Top||

#9  "I am shocked--shocked!--that old Rape-Gurney Joe, the Bush-kissing bloodsucker Mossad agent, would stoop to such cheap rhetoric and gutter tactics."

--Ned Lamont
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 8:54 Comments || Top||

#10  Lamont is the poster boy for partisanship. Once again, the gall and hypocrisy of the moonbats knows no bounds.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 9:07 Comments || Top||

#11  We can just hope that if elected, Lieberman will be a true believer in the rule that "payback is a bitch."

Maybe he can be the first great leader of "reformed" conservative Jews in the republican party. As in, "How can a Jew be orthodox and reformed at the same time?"
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 11:53 Comments || Top||

#12  It's almost like he wants me to lose!
Posted by: Ned Lamont || 08/14/2006 13:01 Comments || Top||

#13  I'm completely convinced now that almost all Demos (with maybe the exception of Lieberman and Zell Miller) live in bizarro world. Ya know, like Saddam, who surrounded himself w/ "yes men" in an echo chamber to the point he actually believed he could beat us. Combine that with the hypocrisy of them using projection in their speeches (just like this one, accusing us of "partisanship" when he was BDS/anti-war/black facing Joe/etc.), and we (should) be seeing a nasty internal civil war in the Donks party. Unfortunately, we're not, so they'll go down in the ash heap of history soon, I'd imagine. And, while I'm ALL for the Repubs right now, long term that's NOT good for the country (no competition). I hope it'll rise third parties who'll run on a more strict-Constitutionalist platform (think Repubs' stance on foreign policy combined with Libertarian/Constitutionalist leanings domestically...like CUTTING spending, shutting down the borders, getting the Feds out of all aspects of our lives and back to the State/local level, etc.).
Posted by: BA || 08/14/2006 13:14 Comments || Top||

#14  Grady! Get moving, the Shadow's on channel 2. They're dialing for dollars today, and I got this secret telephone.
Posted by: Fred G || 08/14/2006 20:13 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Female General Looks Back on Her Climb
An inspiration to all of us.
CAMP ANACONDA, Iraq (AP) - Retracing her path to becoming a brigadier general in Iraq, Rebecca Halstead remembers her first command back in 1981 where, as a freshly minted lieutenant, she was teamed with a sergeant who had served in Vietnam.

It was a rough beginning. After a month at the U.S. Army's base in Vicenza, Italy, Halstead pulled the sergeant aside and outlined two of the three strikes she thought he held against her:
She was yet another officer for him to train; she was from West Point; and - as the petite Halstead stood on a rock to look the sergeant in the eye - she told him strike three was that she's short.

"And he just started laughing because I know he thought I was going to say (it's) 'because I'm a woman.' And that probably was what the issue was," Halstead recalled during an interview at her office on this base 50 miles north of Baghdad.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Having to overcome being West Point must have been one hell of a struggle. Most of the good ones I knew hid their rings and changed the subject. The bad ones were so rotten that they didn't bother to hide the fact.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 08/14/2006 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes sir'ee, she squared that old Vietnam vet (stupid, sexist, male, dinasaur) away. He was laughing because he knew he was PHUECHING WASTING HIS TIME with you dingbat. Her favorite hip-pocket lecture story..... when she was a no-nothing 2LT. Then twenty plus years later and several plume schools and assignments, War College, maybe a BZ promotion or two or three (no gendor preference or quotas of course) and.... shazam, a general officer in a combat zone. Her book will be out soon no doubt. Yep, quite an "inspiration."
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 7:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Does the army still have that ticket punching system in place ?
Every idiot officer gets a chance at every position, and so long as he or she doesn't screw up real bad, they are evaluated too well and moved along. Recipt for disaster. By now the army should have come up with some way of finding the exceptional combat officers and keeping them where they can do the most damage to the enemy.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 7:53 Comments || Top||

#4  Or something. I've nothing against a woman General as long as she's qualified to lead troops in combat and I don't hear Helen Reddy songs in the background.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  Besoeker, wxjames -- maybe it would be worthwhile if you had some actual specific data to base your snark on.

I've met BG Halstead. She's earned her rank, and her soldiers -- and more importantly, the battlefield commanders who rely on her to ensure their units have the logistical support they need -- think very highly of her. Her unit is strac in the right ways - i.e. for effectiveness, not for show - and she has been personally in the middle of the fight on more than one occasion.

Moreover, she comes from a family with a lot of Army service. Her cousin's a field grade officer of my acquaintance and there have been combat-experienced officers in her family for a good while.

It's all well and good to bemoan loss of standards etc. It's even better if you do it when it applies.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#6  I second LOTP's statement. While I have not had the privlidge of meeting her in person, I have seen the results of her works. She's one of the good ones.
Posted by: N guard || 08/14/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Forgive me, Besoeker, but I have the feeling that General Halstead could rip you a new one.

And perhaps should.

I don't like seeing our good military people beng disrespected. So put a sock on it.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 9:33 Comments || Top||

#8  In defense of Besoeker and Wxjames, while the military is not academia, there are politically-correct types there, there is ticket-punching, there is an attitude (among some, not most, but some) of "evening things up."

General Halstead may have come up the hard way and be as good as any other General and better than most.

But, the corrosive effect of affirmative action puts a shadow behind her before she even gets a chance to do what she does. It's the same way as a black or hispanic who gets into a high-ranked college. He may be better-equipped than most people and blow the curve. But, since we know they are giving preferences to less-capable people for "diversity," people will naturally be skeptical.
Posted by: Jackal || 08/14/2006 10:04 Comments || Top||

#9  True nuff, Jackal. But maybe after a couple decades of women with commissions, and 5 years of active combat operations, it's time to set some of that presumption aside -- at least, start with the NEUTRAL assumption that women MAY have earned their rank.

These aren't the Clinton years. While any organization tends towards politics for top level promotions, a lot of people are getting their rank right now because they're doing things that matter where the bullets are flying and IEDs exploding. The knee-jerk assumption of politically-correct promotions based on affirmative action is getting pretty threadbare at this point.

SGT Hester earned her silver star the hard way. BG Halstead earned her rank too. They're not the only ones out there.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 10:09 Comments || Top||

#10  I don’t know too many NCO’s that have been “straightened out” by a 2Lt but I am sure they exist. Not to nit pick the story too much but I have always found logistic officers a lower anal retentive species and the real work is done by the Senior NCOs. Anyone that has had to draw gear and turn it in will understand my statement (the paperwork is often heavier than the gear). Also the more anal the officer the quicker they are promoted! Logistics officers love rules, regulation, and TONS of paperwork.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/14/2006 10:46 Comments || Top||

#11  I know a bunch of the Army people who did the logistical analysis for the invasion of Iraq and afterwards. I can say from personal experience they, at any rate, were neither anal nor nitpicking. Instead, they were figuring out how to flow critical materiel through very extended supply lines in the face of rapidly changing battlefield conditions.

Conditions in Iraq have shifted since then, but the challenges are still quite real. We're not talking low-level paperwork here, Sarge -- we're talking something a little closer to the leadership and incisive analysis that earned George Marshall his stars in WWII and made him so indispensable that Eisenhower was given command in the European theatre instead under Marshall as Chief of Staff -- despite the belief by both FDR and Churchill that Marshall was a brilliant and courageous leader.

And that work - which was based very much on Marshall's genius as a logistical analyst and leader - is what earned him his 5 stars.

As the quintessential logistics leader, Marshall was scarcely an anal, paperwork kind of guy. Nor was he a "didn't make waves" kind of promotee.
long excerpt deleted. But those who don't know how absolutely central Marshall's leadership and vision were to our victory in WWII should check out speech about him at the link.
.

I'm not saying Becky Halstead rises to that level --- very very few people do. But I'm suggesting she's of that school a lot more than she is of the paper-pushing, account for each roll of toiletpaper school.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 11:03 Comments || Top||

#12  Annecdote about Marshall and logistics. FDR called both Marshall and Leahy(chief of naval operations) to ask them what they needed to be ready for deploying troops to Europe.

Marshall, who needed to reconstitute a hollowed out army quickly, listed his top priorities, how much he needed when and what units he could have ready by what date.

Leahy, who wasn't nearly so well prepared, went back to his staff and said, "Gentlemen, I'm not sure what this logistics stuff is all about but the Army has it and we need some too."

Told to me by a close friend who is *retired* navy. LOL
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 11:10 Comments || Top||

#13  Marshall was scarcely an anal, paperwork kind of guy.

He certainly did not hide behind paperwork as a defence for shortcomings, but there was this little black book he kept while commander of the GSCS...

And Forrest Pogue has this to say:

"The surprising thing is not that initially the two men held eachother at arm's length, but that Roosevelt had ever selected Marshall as Chief of Staff. In temperament, methods of work, approach to domestic and international problems, general viewpoints, even forms of relaxation, they differed remarkably. Roosevelt's mercurial nature, flashy intuitiveness, and helter-skelter handling of administrative problems contrasted sharply with Marshall's reserve, careful judgements, and passion for orderliness. Regarding clearly defined channels of authority and tidy organization almost as articles of faith, the Chief of Staff was appalled by Roosevelt's policy of retaining subordinates who quarreled among themselves and who gave only a dubious loyalty to the President himself."
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 08/14/2006 12:12 Comments || Top||

#14  This article sucks! She comes from a generation of West Pointers that handcuffed women to toilets and harassed them, she’s the first “Woman” to make general, so what!!! She is a survivor and not a woman card whistle blower, hat tip to her but again so what. She deserves more credit for her actions, not for getting in the limelight for straightening out an old NCO and for being a woman. This degrades her and just pisses me off. All those F$%king Helen Reddy types revel in - this woman overcame the obstacles - crap and missed the point that this “Officer” comes from a long line of officers and is not only supporting a very complex combat environment, logistically, but doing it well. Do the math, the log toads are getting hit almost every day. They are completely engaged in the fight. And when in this war did you hear of a troop in need? You haven’t. Let’s not confuse a soldiers love to complain with the reality. This war is not being fought like Gulf I where dock workers were in new desert BDU’s and the troops out front were in woodland BDU’s. Every single slice of support available for the troops gets to the front lines first. When soldiers have complained about lack of equipment it was not due to the rear guard wearing it all, it’s because there wasn’t any available, period. This officer has done a great job in her career and should be noted for it, the author of the article should be jack slapped.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 12:23 Comments || Top||

#15  My only beef is that the article emphasises her being female, not the quality of her service. For a blanket-folder to run a base in a hot zone, and do it well is a hell of an accomplishment, to do it over there in Iraq is even more. That's the real "heroic" thing here - she's making logistics work in a pretty nasty place. I've been to LSAA (Balad) and its a nasty place - used to be called "Mortaritaville" - the prior commander was truly a blanket folder. When I was there they still needed someone to secure the place properly though. OPSEC precludes me from talking any further, but they had some major screw-ups in the security setup and plan, mistakes that an combat arms officer would never have made. Apparently she may have fixed some of that or else was in a tenant unit there.

FYI - "blanket folder" is a somewhat derisive nickname we had for logistics officers - and perhaps I should not have applied it here.

We never applied that term to our supply NCO's - those guys kept us rolling, and they could trade snowballs to the Eskimos and come up with parkas in return. No better friends to have in the S-4 than the supply Sgt and the cook.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 12:45 Comments || Top||

#16  Agreed on both points - the article's slant is lousy.

And NS, do you really WANT a mercurial, disorganized quasi-aristocrat actually planning and executing things??? ;-)

But what I was really pointing to in the excerpt I originally included was that Marshall wasn't afraid to make waves by challenging the consensus agreement - including when he was a much more junior officer, disagreeing with seniors publicly. He could be pretty confrontational, but he tended to have his facts and figures analyzed before he did it and could make the case for his position.

Yes, he was appalled by the infighting that Roosevelt encouraged "tolerated". But he was also quite loyal and accepted the chief of staff role when EVERYONE, from Churchill and Roosevelt down through the ranks, though he was the obvious best to lead the invasion. It was a real disappointment to him to be asked if he would accept the staff job instead. He could easily have demanded and gotten the job that went to Eisenhower and noone but he himself would probably have criticized him for it.

Of course, the Army wouldn't have been trained, supplied and deployed nearly as well as it was if he had done so ...
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 12:51 Comments || Top||

#17  Ok Dr. Steve, she can "rip me a new one" right after she finishes counting canteen cups and picking rags, and telling stories about the enlisted Vietnam vets she squared away. You can come along to assist. See you on the drop zone mate.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 12:58 Comments || Top||

#18  Are you really that dense or do you just pretend to be so, Besoeker?
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 13:00 Comments || Top||

#19  I luves fight'n wumen
Posted by: Captain America || 08/14/2006 13:02 Comments || Top||

#20  what Cyber Sarge said...without the enlisted all the services would be nothing but paper and ribbon.

yes sir, you'll have to lump it! >::
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 13:04 Comments || Top||

#21  Well, duh! It goes both ways: without leadership the enlisted aren't an effective army either.

And while the NCO role is crucial, it is NOT the totality of leadership. Both non-commissioned and commissioned officers are needed, both should be respected for their leadership roles IMO.

WRT her impact in Iraq, OS what I've heard is that the base was a lot tighter and more combat effective after her than before her and that the difference was due in part specifically to her.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 13:05 Comments || Top||

#22  try sum humor ma'am.
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 13:09 Comments || Top||

#23  Besoeker - don't trash someone you don't know.

I have been to Balad ("Camp Anaconda"), and 3rd SupCom is doing damn good work (as long as they stay out of the JSOC compound, heh). I had no idea its commander was a female until I read this article - and she's doing a better job than the previous (male) base commander who was an idiot looking for a ticket punch and who had no concept of how to secure an area. If she managed to keep her units going and secure the place better than the previous commander then BZ to her.

On a more personal note:

As for her "counting canteen cups" - kiss my ass and hers too. Those supply people were under 24*7 intermittent harassment fire from mortars and sniper fire from the ville (as were all at the base); when they left on supply runs, they ran a gauntlet of IEDs, ambushes and so on. Id like to mash your face into the bloodstains on those demolished vehicles sitting at the wrecking yard on the west side of LSAA across the runways (anyone that has been there can back me up on this - the Army doesn't publicise it, but they are there). Those kids put it out there, and she apparently did a good job commanding them. As for "meet me on the DZ", pray that the logistics people like her have proper riggers, or you're going to get to the ground a lot faster than me.

So from this riled up old soldier and old spook: you just back the f*ck up - if you can't apologize then just shut up.
Posted by: Oldspook || 08/14/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#24  humor .... hmmm. Do they issue that standard???

LOL. Guess I got a little intense on this one. It just pissed me off when a really talented, brave and effective officer got dissed right out of the box because some idiot reporter's slant fit so well with prejudices.

BTW I mentioned this discussion over lunch today with a woman O5 I know who is a pilot and one of the first female grads of some of the Army's more advanced combat courses. Her comment: "Oh for goodness sake, people aren't still stuck on THAT sort of thing, are they?"
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#25  "...she's looking forward to life without constantly humming generators and F-16 fighter planes roaring overhead,.."

I bet she'll miss it.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 08/14/2006 13:19 Comments || Top||

#26  My turn: while the comments regarding PC/gender-based quotas for promotion are true, it is also true, at least in the Navy I was part of, that eventually the system worked. Now whether the system was the official one or the real one is up for another discussion, I have both worked for and had women work for me that were true professionals. There were also some of those quota fillers but we usually got them washed out before they did too much damage. The fiasco with fighter pilots and the loss of life and aircraft frying to force feed unsuitable individuals into the cockpits has, to a large extent, been rectified.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Civil Service side of the gov't. The loser I had to work under in another life made a bad job unbearable and it took the TSA over 2 years to figure it out and move her to a job she was better suited for ( pushing paper in Seattle, rather than phuequing up a whole airport.
Don't denigrate her unless you have walked in her shoes.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 08/14/2006 14:34 Comments || Top||

#27  She's a class act and she does her job right. What else matters?
Posted by: Mike || 08/14/2006 14:39 Comments || Top||

#28  Spook: Been to Balad my damn self and will be going back again soon as well! I'm not saying nothing about the Spt Cmd, I never mentioned it. I've counted my share of kit as well. Crack troops that enjoy quota promotions, assignments, and play Rambo are my beef, along with wise cracks and crappy war stories about.... telling soldiers off as a stumpy 2nd LT. A senior officer should pick a career story or target other than combat veteran enlisted man. I'll match my jump log with yours, shake your chute, and buy the beer if I lose.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 14:43 Comments || Top||

#29  When the tanks were lined up for Gulf I the med helos went cross flot to wait on any injured. Makes sence to only fly cross flot one time when the fighting starts. They sat outside Bagdad, the closest any conventional forces ever got to Bagdad, for that war anyway. There was a female pilot in one of the aircraft relaying the fact that the support went deeper into the fight and that a woman was with them deeper that the main battle force. There are also stories of the fuelers bypassing the Division so the tanks could ROM, again with women in the ranks. In more current ops both my in country contact and guide were women who risked everything fo us.

Lets not confuse what we want with the reality. I do not want women in combat. I am a bigot in this regard and feel it is no place for a lady. My govenment feels differently. I don't like it, too bad, I soldier on. But the women I have worked with both in combat and out performed as well as any other soldier and as in the 50 plus that have paid with their lives.

Besoeker, your just wrong on this one.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 14:44 Comments || Top||

#30  Of course combat is no place for a lady! She can be a lady before, and again after, but during combat she damn well better be a soldier just like everyone else wearing a uniform. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 14:59 Comments || Top||

#31  I can give a rat's butt if she a women, but she did her job and that is all that matters. Congrats to her and may she have a presporous future.
Posted by: djohn66 || 08/14/2006 15:02 Comments || Top||

#32  A senior officer should pick a career story or target other than combat veteran enlisted man.

Based on my limited experience being interviewed, and then reading the results, there's a very good chance BG Halstead never said things quite the way they were reported. I've had quotes pulled out of context and used to make exactly the opposite point from what I clearly intended -- even had it done with AUDIO, which is a lot harder than a print story to edit that way.

I agree with you 100% on one thing, Besoeker -- the story as written is condescending towards a veteran who earned the right to be treated and spoken of with deep respect. I should have made that clear up front.

While my generation and their kids have mostly served as commissioned officers, my father and his brothers saw combat in WWII as enlisted and junior NCOs. Of those who stayed career after WWII not one accepted an offer to "upgrade" to a commissioned status. The one highly decorated combat veteran in my close family - Silver Star, multiple Bronze Stars, 3 Purple Hearts all won during the fiercest fighting at Bastogne - was a young SGT at the time. Years later his youngest brother served as a senior NCO in Nam. I respect them deeply and you're right to take offense at the dismissive attitude the writer shows towards a Viet vet. Just don't assume that reflects Becky Halstead's attitude accurately.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 15:05 Comments || Top||

#33  One more comment before I go, an example... only one. When I went in the "fireman's carry" was a mandetory event on the PT test. Why you ask? because it was deamed essential that YOU be able to pick up your buddy and pull his wounded ass out of the line of fire. The fireman's carry is no longer a Physical Training requirement. Most wouldn't even know what you're talking about... unless you're a fireman. A lot of other standards have been dumbed down over the years in an effort to be more "inclusive" more available to wimin. Combat ain't for wimin, sorry. And assymetric warfare has the potential to make the entire planet a combat zone. It ain't likely to change, I know that. That don't mean I have to like it.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 15:31 Comments || Top||

#34  Well, how far back should I go ?
The Civil War ? How about WW2 ? Ike sat Patton in the corner and let Mark Clark get 8,000 American men killed at Angio. Then, there was Nam.
Officers and politicians alike had Americans killed by the hundreds for assinine decisions.
I guess the army learned real well during all those years of peace....doubt it. There may be some great combat officers around, but the whole idea of officers and gentlemen (you know the college elite) vs. the common grunts sucks. And today, there is the practice of making the decisions while well behind the action. No Chesty Pullers here. I'll believe it when I see it. Till then, it's the army of Nam in my mind.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 15:37 Comments || Top||

#35  Not liking it is one thing, Besoeker.

Snarking at a particular woman in uniform who is doing a great job and earned her rank -- and the respect of those she leads and those who depend on her leadership for the wellbeing of their own units -- is quite another thing.

Hold whatever views you want on women in combat. But if you're going to spew uninformed snide snark about someone whose service I and OS and others KNOW to be superlative, you will be called on it again and again.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#36  Wow, wxjames -- and that's all Halstead's fault?

today, there is the practice of making the decisions while well behind the action

Read OS's comments above, wxjames. Halstead has been leading from inside the zone that's getting regular fire. She's leading soldiers who are under fire daily. And her command's effectiveness is not only recognized, it's highly appreciated by the combat commanders in theatre.

I'll say to you what I've said to Besoeker -- hold whatever opinions you want in general, but when you dismiss the service of someone I know to be an outstanding officer I'll call you on it.

Y'a know??
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 15:41 Comments || Top||

#37  Please stick to your delicious milk tarts lotp.... ( only kidding )
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 15:45 Comments || Top||

#38  When soaked in gas it's not smart to play with matches there B. Someone get a chain and restrain Lotp. LOL
Posted by: 49 Pan || 08/14/2006 15:47 Comments || Top||

#39  I only met Halstead once, about two months ago, while we were waiting for a the Palace exit to open again during one of the closures for bomb scares around the parking lot that are becoming more frequent. Had a nice brief chat, asked her about convoy security and the level and kind of attacks they were seeing now.

I remember that she was very friendly and smart, very short, had two stars, and I had never seen her before (which is unusual around here, where you get used to recognizing most of the brass).

I have to second all those here who salute her service and that of her people, who face most of the s**t this place has to offer and keep everyone so well supplied. I have nothing but gratitude, respect, and affection for everyone in uniform out here.
Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq || 08/14/2006 15:49 Comments || Top||

#40  Whahahahaha, amen to that.
Posted by: Besoeker || 08/14/2006 15:50 Comments || Top||

#41  No need for chains, 49Pan. B's attitude is neither unique nor particularly provocative at this point. As my pilot friend said over lunch today, "Oh for goodness sake, people aren't still stuck on THAT sort of thing, are they?"

I do take exception, though, when it results in direct dissing of a fine officer.

Verlaine -- thanks for reminding me. I did see Halstead's name on the Major General promotion list, forgot about that.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 16:00 Comments || Top||

#42  Halstead April 2006 interview

Interesting stuff.
Posted by: mrp || 08/14/2006 16:12 Comments || Top||

#43  Lotp, the LOCs around the world were outlined probably during the Spanish American War. The world hasn’t gained any new oceans, seas, or rivers. Yes there is an Air component but that is marginal compared to Sealift. Logistic Officers have very little to do unless they are making life tough on the enlisted force. Planning for deployments and re-supply is done at the Pentagon and not in Iraq. General Nuisance is only there to (hopefully) smooth over any wrinkles that may gum up the Logistics trail and possibly to foster some cooperation within Iraq with the locals. Yes the troops working in Logistics are tops (as are all today) and you can’t run an Army without them, but most of the orders/shipments (work previously done by Officers) are handled by computers which leaves the Officers free to help load or keep out of the way. If I am wrong please correct me and give me the daily routine of your typical supply officer.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 08/14/2006 17:28 Comments || Top||

#44  Stand down about those milk tarts I made, Besoeker dear, or I won't let you have any. Lotp doesn't have time for such things just now -- she's got people to train now that you may well appreciate later.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 17:29 Comments || Top||

#45  Or not, it would seem TW. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 17:41 Comments || Top||

#46  Read OS above, Sarge, as to what MG Haltead's troops actual do in Iraq -- and what they face.

As far as the planning goes, as I mentioned I know some of the analysts involved. It isn't QUITE as simple as "computers do it all". A complicating factor right now is the move to the brigade as the deployable unit of action, unit as opposed to single soldier rotation and the rapid rotation of reserve and national guard units who will use some of the equipment left behind and who have very little in the way of organic logistics capability or experience.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 17:42 Comments || Top||

#47  From MG Halstead's review linked above:

Now, on a daily basis, what that means is, we move over 120 combat logistics patrols. That is, on average, over 17,000 trucks a week. We produce over 7 million gallons of bulk water a day. We distribute over 1 million gallons of fuel, over 9 million short tons of ammunition and over 80,000 cases of water. That's a day.

Now, I am pleased to report, however, that we have just begun production of water at our second water bottling plant in Iraq.

... We also prepare over 500 pallets of supplies that are flown each day. ... In the month of March, for instance, we reached an all-time goal of moving over 16,000 pallets by air. . ...

Another aspect of our mission is to support and train the Iraqi security force. As you would imagine, there are different levels of logistics units in the Iraqi army, just as we have in our own forces. So in the 3rd COSCOM, our mission is to partner with the Iraqi army's motorized transportation regiments. We call those MTRs. We also provide technical support and assistance to the Iraqi army national depot and the regional support units. They provide maintenance and supply support.

... We receive MTRs when they are 85 percent equipped and manned and when they've completed their individual training. So then our focus becomes on the unit level collective training, and that is everything from transportation operations to maintenance to force protection to soldier discipline. Our goal is to bring them to a higher level of readiness in preparation for them being assigned to their Iraqi army division.

...For the (Iraqi) national depot and the regional support units, our focus is mainly on training them on warehousing operations, assisting them with the development of their logistics concepts for their support systems, like ordering parts and supplies, prioritizing their work and their maintenance and coordinating the distribution to support their army units and sustain their readiness

This is happening, as a reminder, in Iraq and headquartered at Balad. (REF: OldSpook re: casualties her troops absorb due to IED, mortar and other attacks.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:00 Comments || Top||

#48  I've never met the general in question so I can only go off what those of you say who have met her. I usually get sick of articles based on gender and the whole overcoming obstacles bullshit. Just tell me how she improved the situation on the ground for those in the fight and she will have my respect regardless of what she has or doesn't have between her legs.

BTW - I'm prolly one of the most un-p.c. neanderthal guys you'll ever meet. I did a tour in Iraq and am looking to go back again next year for another. I have no issue with any Marine of any background who can pack their gear, and that includes females. However, I will admit I personally have seen at Recruit Training how standards are physically different for women. (they get to climb the knotted rope, do the flexed arm hang, only have to run 31 minutes for 3 miles to pass a pft, etc.) I do not condone lowering (or the p.c. differing standards due to body type horse hockey) for one sex and not the other if we are working toward the same promotion as well as wearing the same title. I believe standards should be congruent no matter what the sex as a bullet does not discriminate. From personal experience, I am not an advocate of women in the Marine Corps as I've seen many in just the past couple years get pregnant over and over to avoid deployment - yes, a lot of you won't believe that but it is 100% true. I have also met those females that pound for pound were more mature, more articulate, and could multi-task better then their male counterparts. I have met many who are very earnest about their job and are proud to serve. I absolutely have no issue w/those that do their job in that manner, but I think the sytem is not built for them, nor are they built for the sytem, and nor really should it be. The military in a lot of respects has turned into a daycare center. In general I'm a huge fan of women and when I was single I slept w/as many I could ;) However, I am not sold on them in a deployed environment though I know first hand as anyone who has been there can attest those who did perform well under fire.

BTW - I also think it is silly at least from a Marine perspective to bitch about logistics officers or REMF's. I saw a lot of Marines in support MOS's take a helluva a lot of fire, IED dets, and UXO cleanups while I was deployed. I've also deployed w/the grunts and can attest to the MOS expertise of both types. I've seen every stereotype and cliche of the pogue who never goes to the front but wears the best gear as well as I've seen grunts who whine about every goddamned thing under the sun. So as my ole' man used ta say: if they ain't bitchin' they ain't happy. It's when they stop bitchin' and get real quiet ya need to be worried.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 08/14/2006 18:20 Comments || Top||

#49  The pregnancy-to-get-out-of-deploying happens in the Army too sometimes, I'm afraid. Totally unprofessional and inappropriate -- not to mention that the women in question usually are not mature enough to make good mothers in any case.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 18:24 Comments || Top||

#50  lotp, don't jump to conclusions. I made only 2 comments, and never blamed anything on this lady general. Let's just say with me, respect must be earned, and by army officers, twice.
Throughout our history, we have a dismal record of bad officers getting their men killed in battle. I'm not aware that has changed. I would like to be wrong, but things tend to stay the same.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 18:55 Comments || Top||

#51  Broadhead6: The gals are fully capable of meeting and exceeding the most stringent PT standards--given the right training. Check out the "Nasty Girls" workout video. These ladies have smoked many a PT bad ass:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/051204.wmv

Even the moms and daughters will make it up the unknotted rope if you train 'em well:

http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/mom_daughter.wmv

(warning: mature lyrics and images)
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 08/14/2006 18:59 Comments || Top||

#52  Got the link thingy wrong.

CrossFit Nasty Girls

Mom and Daughter
Posted by: Classical_Liberal || 08/14/2006 19:02 Comments || Top||

#53  CL - If that were the case then I'd have never made the initial post. Thanks for the video submission though anyway.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 08/14/2006 21:20 Comments || Top||

#54  lotp, I concur. I encourage my single first termers to stay single. I also tell them not to buy a new car from one of the rip off dealers out in town but they often do not listen. Unfortunately a lot of them get married too early, have kids they cannot afford, & make poor economic decisions (or their economics are dictated by the aforementioned factors).
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 08/14/2006 21:31 Comments || Top||

#55  I guess we'll learn how this plays out over time. I do understand both your experience and your concern Broadhead. Whatever else, the mission must not be sacrified.

OTOH I also know one of the women who have now graduated from air assault school, in almost entirely male cadre and meeting the exact same requirements as the men. Those 10 days aren't exactly a cakewalk for most soldiers, although I would *not* want to get into the Army vs. Marine comparison .... ;-)

Thanks for your comments on this thread, all. An important topic and one in which the data are still out I suspect -- for either side.
So we'll see how this plays out over time. And male or female, I am deeply grateful to ALL of you who sacrifice and serve.
Posted by: lotp || 08/14/2006 21:34 Comments || Top||


Britain
More arrests as another UK charity being probed
British and Pakistani intelligence agencies are investigating another UK-based Muslim charity active in Pakistan for its alleged involvement in terror financing, it emerged on Sunday, as 15 people were arrested in southern Punjab in connection with the alleged plot to blow up aircraft in the UK. Investigators are already looking at one UK-based charity, called the Muslim Charity, that allegedly sent large sums of money to three individuals in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, under the guise of quake relief but for the actual purpose of funding the alleged UK plane bombing plot, according to official sources.
“Investigators are already looking at one UK-based charity, called the Muslim Charity, that allegedly sent large sums of money to three individuals in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, under the guise of quake relief but for the actual purpose of funding the alleged UK plane bombing plot...”
Somehow we knew a considerable portion of all that money coming in for quake relief was going to get dirty...
Cynic. It was for the Widows Ammunition Fund; every Moose-limb country has one ...
The new charity, which has been under surveillance for several months, is also said to have provided funds, to individuals in Quetta last year. The charity asked the recipients of the money to sacrifice animals on Eidul Azha and give the meat to the poor, the sources said. Sources said the UK investigators are trying to establish whether the charity remitted the money through the formal banking system. Pakistani investigators believe the funds could have found their way here through the informal Hawala mode of payment, the sources said.
That's the usual method favored by terrs, isn't it?

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Muslim charity"
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 6:14 Comments || Top||

#2  All Muzzie charities are to benefit poor children. Just ask them. They forget to mention that they like to buy their children the latest in RPG's and AK's. Foolish us. We were thinking food and clothing.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 08/14/2006 10:56 Comments || Top||

#3  ummah charity.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 08/14/2006 16:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Using this latest perfidy as a general model, ALL Muslim charities should be shut down tight. There needs to be an independent foundation (no, not the UN fer crimeney sakes!) that is assigned to amass and distribute any and all of the donations that Muslims make.

Between jihad and taqqiya there is absolutely no hope of any honorable dealings with Islam. This has been proven over and over again. Now is the time to simply choke off this deceitful farce.
Posted by: Zenster || 08/14/2006 21:18 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
The bride with a bomb
Five days after the earthquake struck Kashmir in October last year, Ghulam Nabi sat in his shop in the south Kashmir town of Avantipura looking out at the highway that connects the Kashmir Valley to the Indian plains. Today, as every day, he saw hundreds of Indian military vehicles drive past. A hundred metres or so from his shop stands the local headquarters of the anti-insurgency wing of the Kashmir Police, and beyond that an Indian army camp.

Some of the most lethal attacks on Indian troops in the past few years have happened on this highway. It is an area dense with military and militants. That morning Nabi noticed even more soldiers and armed policemen on patrol than usual. An inspector general was visiting the police HQ and he wondered if a militant attack was expected. But, mostly, Nabi's thoughts were with the earthquake victims on both sides of the Line of Control, the temporary border dividing Kashmir into parts controlled by India and Pakistan.

Political discontent has simmered in the Indian-controlled sector of Kashmir since partition in 1947 - the more so in latter years as Kashmiri rights and autonomy were eroded. Wars, several insurgencies, and countless political manoeuvres have failed to settle the issue of the "ownership" of Kashmir, and since the mid-1990s the rebellion has taken on a more jihadi, pro-Pakistan aspect; secular Kashmiri separatist groups that have laid down their arms have been overshadowed. Peace talks between India and Pakistan have made little progress and death remains a constant visitor.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [28 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Int'l troops to deploy real soon now in south Lebanon: Solana
JERUSALEM - The European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Sunday that international troops would deploy in south Lebanon soon as part of a UN resolution to end the month-old war in the ravaged country.

‘We have already prepared to be there in a short period of time and for the UN to deploy 4,000 troops in a very, very short period of time,’ Solana told reporters at a joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. He did not elaborate.
"I can say no more!"
"I don't know anything more. Actually, I don't know anything at all."
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [16 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So, Javier, will you lead them in as they attempt to deploy under fire? You've heard what Nazirallah said, right? There won't be any "ceasefire", shithead. Still think you're relevant? Go suck Prodi or something.

Fuckwit.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:20 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice tapdance, huh?
Posted by: Elmealet Threng6841 || 08/14/2006 0:26 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL 4000 troops. You are going to need 15,000 and you will not be able to deploy them unless you do a Normandy type landing and fight your way in. Hizb'allah has pulled the plug on your 'ceasefire.'

No matter how many time you EUropeans bend over and kiss islamic ass you are never going to learn. It's not about talking about it, it's not about process, it's about getting it done. EUrope and the UN can't get it done. STFU, sit down and get the hell out of the way!
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2006 0:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Manana, manana.
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 7:19 Comments || Top||

#5  And the 4,000 are all combat troops with an aggressive ROE as required, right, Mr. EU Foreign Policy Chief? Which ountry did you say was providing those ready troops? Because I was under the impression that both France and Britain were just about overstretched with current responsibilities in Afghanistan, the former Yugoslavia and for France, scattered about former colonies in Africa. But perhaps I misunderstood -- I am, after all, just a little American suburban housewife, not chief of anything except my tea table.
Posted by: trailing wife || 08/14/2006 7:56 Comments || Top||

#6  International troops found to be turning a blind eye or actually assisting Hezbollah re-deploy in 5....4....3....2....
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 08/14/2006 8:49 Comments || Top||

#7  This should be interesting.
Posted by: JohnQC || 08/14/2006 13:57 Comments || Top||


Israeli jets renew strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs
BEIRUT - Israeli warplanes on Sunday renewed its strikes on Beirut southern suburbs as rescue workers were battling to remove casualties from under the rubble from an earlier strikes. The jets carried out at least five new strikes on areas in the Hezbollah hotbed of Haret Hriek.

In earlier strikes - the heaviest so far on Beirut’s southern suburbs - at least five people were killed, including one child, and seven others wounded. Eight buildings and the Imman Hussein mosque were flattened to the ground in the Roueiss neighbourhood in the Shiite-dominated suburbs. Flames were still emanating from one of the collapsed buildings which left heaps of cement blocks covering the ground.
No word about the baby ducks.
Thick clouds of smoke rose above the area targeted by the Israeli strikes.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [24 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if any reinforcing steel was found in the rubble. From past pictures, I have not seen too much steel in the rural weapons silos residential buildings.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/14/2006 0:09 Comments || Top||

#2  No rebar or I beams that is your basic "god willing" design I think AP.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 08/14/2006 0:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I wouldn't care if they leveled the whole thing. Lebanon is and deserves to be forfeit - anything that survives is a gift from Israel.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:57 Comments || Top||

#4 
Insh'allah Engineering Ltd

Allah-Bar + Mecca Cement + Ayatollah Aggregate
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 1:09 Comments || Top||

#5  RD---don't fo'get Wahabbi Water, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 08/14/2006 2:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Don't drink the Wahabbi water, it's only for flushing.
Posted by: wxjames || 08/14/2006 7:31 Comments || Top||

#7  Alaska Paul I seem to recall that Wahabbi Water is mostly high sodium brackish water with a little sugar disolved in it.

»:-)
Posted by: RD || 08/14/2006 12:21 Comments || Top||

#8  I saw some footage on Fox this morning of a muzzie town in Southern Leb. Place was totally rubble. Nothing left standing. They'll have to bulldoze the whole thing and start over.
Posted by: remoteman || 08/14/2006 13:12 Comments || Top||

#9  Are you sure you weren't viewing the before photo, remoteman?
Posted by: Jake-the-peg || 08/14/2006 14:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Allah-Bar + Mecca Cement + Ayatollah Aggregate

Join us!
Posted by: The Fly Ash Liberation Army || 08/14/2006 18:31 Comments || Top||

#11  They must have been going after Green Helmet Guy.
Posted by: gorb || 08/14/2006 23:05 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
US gives Jordan 247 million dollar aid
AMMAN - The US government has provided regional Arab ally Jordan with 247.5 million dollars in economic aid for 2006, the US embassy said on Sunday. Four grants were signed on Thursday with funds allocated to enhance economic growth and create jobs, as well as develop the water and health sectors, support education and the judiciary and reduce foreign debt, it said.

‘The agreement constitute the overall US regular economic assistance package to Jordan for fiscal year 2006,’ the statement said. Jordan is a major beneficiary of US financial assistance, receiving more than 4.7 billion dollars since 1952, it said.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why are we providing aid to a country that abets/tolerates honor killings (murders of women for real or perceived sexual behavior)? What century do you think it will be before an American politician puts up a fight about aid to such countries? Tom Tancredo, are you out there? You have the cajones-you are one of few who could lead such an important and virtuous legislative drive.

We should prohibit aid to ANY countries with honor killing histories unless they prove they are aggressively prosecuting and punishing such behavior. We should do the same for countries with histories of executing ex-Muslims. That'll end a lot of wasted money.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Protection money.
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 7:20 Comments || Top||

#3  Possibly because Jordan is the only country in that part of the world other than is Israel that is worth a bucket of warm spit.
Posted by: RWV || 08/14/2006 7:44 Comments || Top||

#4  Countries that religiously sanction MURDERING teenage daughters, mothers and wives because they are offended by their sexuality are no friends of America-only country in the region or not.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 8:51 Comments || Top||

#5  "There are no accurate statistics on the number of honour crimes committed in Jordan annually, but according to a report by the Christian Science Monitor in March 2005, honour crimes account for one-third of all violent deaths in Jordan.

This runs counter to the perception of Jordan as one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East, where gender discrimination is officially minimal; women have voting rights, are present in parliament and government and hold influential positions in other sections of society."

http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=46677&SelectRegion=Middle_East
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 9:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Possibly because Jordan is the only country in that part of the world other than is Israel that is worth a bucket of warm spit.

Jordan is where GB (when G meant it) and later USA keep the alternative to the House of Saud.
Posted by: gromgoru || 08/14/2006 9:59 Comments || Top||

#7  Cold, hard cash is a great way to keep friends around. Heck, the only reason Egypt stopped trying to kill Isreal is the billions in bribes that we give them every year. And the Isrealis gracefully allow us to bribe them, as well.
Posted by: gromky || 08/14/2006 10:14 Comments || Top||

#8  Dangit, Israel. I always get that one wrong.
Posted by: gromky || 08/14/2006 10:17 Comments || Top||

#9  Our leaders need to read history, specifically the Greek city state tribute flow.
Posted by: ed || 08/14/2006 10:21 Comments || Top||

#10  Cold hard cash is exactly what Hezbollah and rogue nations use, too. We don't want to be in that same league, do we?

What is it that we hear from people all over the thrid world-their pet peeve? Corruption. Payoffs not only build expectations for future handouts to the ME from us (which I, for one American, have had enough of), they make our government less distinguishable from other corrupt governments.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 11:25 Comments || Top||

#11  That's "third" world. Geesh.
Posted by: Jules in the Hinterlands || 08/14/2006 11:26 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali Islamists take control of Indian Ocean base for piracy
MOGADISHU - Somalia’s dominant Islamic militia on Sunday seized control of a central township near the coastline that has been a base of piracy and dozens of hijackings of ships in the Indian Ocean, officials and residents said. ‘The Islamic courts are in full control of Haradere and we were welcomed by its inhabitants, who were forcefully ruled by pirates,’ Sheikh Said Ali, an Islamic courts official, told AFP of the township that lies about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Mogadishu.
I'm sure they welcomed a bunch of spittle-spewing holy men with lots o' guns ...
"All your base belong to us"
‘The era of banditry and piracy is over. People can now live peacefully and get money by fishing and doing other businesses, but not piracy. The pirates have mistreated people in the territorial waters of Somalia and damaged our credibility,’ he added.

Residents said the pirates, calling themselves the Defenders of Somali Territorial Waters and loyal to regional warlord Abdi Mohamed Afweyne, ran away fled before the Islamic militiamen and battlewagons—pickup trucks mounted with machineguns—arrived at the dusty outpost in the country’s Mudug region.
"Four wheel drive don't fail me now!"
Last month, the Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS) which controls the capital and much of southern Somalia, said he would forcefully stop all acts of piracy in Somalia.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There were no piracy reports last week. Maybe it's a good sign.
Posted by: Pappy || 08/14/2006 0:04 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
The most hypocritical people on earth (du libanese)
The man really speaks "truth to power" against the hizboauts
The most hypocritical people on earth
Ména will continue to inform its readers of the evolution of the situation, by way of continuous official statements on this site for the minor developments, and by emailing “breaking news” to its subscribers, in the case of major events.

“Hezbollah had created an independent state in our country, a state including all the ministers and parallel institutions, duplicating those of Lebanon...”
The politicians, journalists and intellectuals of Lebanon have, of late, been experiencing the shock of their lives. They knew full well that Hezbollah had created an independent state in our country, a state including all the ministers and parallel institutions, duplicating those of Lebanon. What they did not know – and are discovering with this war, and what has petrified them with surprise and terror – is the extent of this phagocytosis.

In fact, our country had become an extension of Iran, and our so-called political power also served as a political and military cover for the Islamists of Teheran. We suddenly discovered that Teheran had stocked more than 12,000 missiles, of all types and calibers, on our territory and that they had patiently, systematically, organized a suppletive force, with the help of the Syrians, that took over, day after day, all the rooms in the House of Lebanon.
“Just imagine it : we stock ground-to-ground missiles, Zilzals, on our territory and that the firing of such devices without our knowledge, has the power to spark a regional strategic conflict and, potentially, bring about the annihilation of Lebanon...”
Just imagine it : we stock ground-to-ground missiles, Zilzals, on our territory and that the firing of such devices without our knowledge, has the power to spark a regional strategic conflict and, potentially, bring about the annihilation of Lebanon.

We knew that Iran, by means of Hezbollah, was building a veritable Maginot line in the south but it was the pictures of Maroun el-Ras and Bint J’bail that revealed to us the magnitude of these constructions. This amplitude made us understand several things at once : that we were no longer masters of our destiny. That we do not possess the most basic means necessary to reverse the course of this state of things and that those who turned our country into an outpost of their islamic doctrine’s combat against Israel did not have the slightest intention of willingly giving up their hold over us.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Brett || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [22 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There's a truly special kind of stupid at work in these Islamic cesspools. It always gets distilled down to cause, meet effect - over and over and over - yet they never can seem to grasp it.

Too stupid to live is my assessment.
Posted by: flyover || 08/14/2006 0:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Beirut, all the rest of Beirut, 95% of Beirut, lives and breathes better than a fortnight ago. All those who have not sided with terrorism know they have strictly nothing to fear from the Israeli planes, on the contrary! One example: last night the restaurant where I went to eat was jammed full and I had to wait until 9:30 pm to get a table. Everyone was smiling, relaxed, but no one filmed them: a strange destruction of Beirut, is it not?

Eurabians are seeing Beirut portrayed as post-nuke Hiroshima, and south Lebanese starving. Reality dictates that food production is north Lebanon was not effected. Electrical power has not been cut off in the north. However, polling in the north has recorded considerable support for Hizbollah. Maybe that will be lost when the fog of war clears, and they can see that the terrorists are tools of Teheran.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 08/14/2006 1:59 Comments || Top||

#3  From the tone and content of the article, and the fact that the source appears to be an Israeli news agency, I'd speculate that the above propaganda is authored by someone affiliated with remnants of the South Lebanese Army.

Certainly he's claims that the overwhelming majority of Lebanese support the bombing of their country by the IDF, and that 95% of Beirut lives and breathes better than a fortnight ago seem somewhat...unlikely
Posted by: Snoase Shaiting3684 || 08/14/2006 4:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Let it even be propaganda but the fact remains that Ayrabs with their muzzie creed do not take responsibility for their own troubles. They talk about root causes but never go back far enough but jump at every opportunity to pass the blame to others. There is deeply rooted hypocrisy within and it also afflicts all muzzieland outside the ME as well.
Posted by: Duh! || 08/14/2006 7:59 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan
Afghanistan fighting kills 30
Fighting in Afghanistan left at least 24 insurgents and five Afghan security forces dead, as unknown attackers hit a house with mortar fire, wounding 20 civilians, officials said on Sunday.

In a flood-hit province, authorities found bombs planted under the car of a senior Afghan Red Crescent official and outside a government refugee office. In Kabul, the education minister teamed up with the top US general in Afghanistan to thwart attacks on schools that have killed 41 students and teachers over the last year.

In eastern Paktika province, insurgents attacked an Afghan army post, leaving five soldiers and at least 18 militants dead on Sunday, the US-led coalition said. Six soldiers were hurt, three seriously, before the attackers were fended off by mortar fire from nearby military bases, said a coalition statement. Coalition troops were embedded with the Afghan troops but suffered no casualties, it said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Horn
Ugandan army says troops kill wanted rebel
KAMPALA - Uganda’s military has killed a senior northern rebel wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, a spokesman said on Sunday. Raska Lukwiya was one of five commanders from the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) named by the new world court in its first arrest warrants in October.

‘We got him yesterday in Kitgum district after he staged an ambush on Friday night. Lukwiya is dead,’ a Ugandan army spokesman said by telephone. He said the body had been identified by former rebels. An LRA spokesman said he could not confirm if Lukwiya was dead.

Experts were cautious, saying the Ugandan military has often claimed to have killed top LRA fighters who are later found alive. In October, it said another ICC target, Dominic Ongwen, had been killed in northern Uganda. Last month, the ICC said Ongwen was alive and trying to join LRA chief Joseph Kony in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sorta like Belushi in the Rasputin skit ...
‘Mistakes are made, but weigh them against the accuracies,’ Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told a news conference in Uganda’s capital Kampala, referring to the capture of several LRA officers in recent months.

The ICC has charged Lukwiya with four counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including enslavement, attacking civilians and pillaging. An Interpol ‘red notice’ for his arrest issued in June includes a rare, grainy photograph of the pudgy middle-aged commander wearing a camouflage uniform and green beret.
Posted by: Steve White || 08/14/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || E-Mail|| [13 views] Top|| File under:



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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2006-08-14
  Hizbullah distributes Leaflets claiming victory
Sun 2006-08-13
  Lebanese Cabinet Approves Cease-Fire
Sat 2006-08-12
  Israeli troops reach the Litani River
Fri 2006-08-11
  ‘Quake money’ used to finance UK plane bombing plot
Thu 2006-08-10
  "Plot to blow up planes" foiled in UK. We hope.
Wed 2006-08-09
  Israel shakes up Leb front leadership
Tue 2006-08-08
  Lebanese objection delays vote at UN
Mon 2006-08-07
  IAF strikes northeast Lebanon
Sun 2006-08-06
  Beirut dismisses UN draft resolution
Sat 2006-08-05
  U.S., France OK U.N. Mideast Truce Pact
Fri 2006-08-04
  IDF Ordered to Advance to Litani River
Thu 2006-08-03
  Record number of rockets hit Israeli north
Wed 2006-08-02
  IDF pushes into Leb
Tue 2006-08-01
  Iran rejects UN demand to suspend uranium enrichment
Mon 2006-07-31
  IAF strikes road from Lebanon to Damascus

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